Scrambled
by EarmuffedAmazon
Summary: My A-Z MA Prompts from Nickeldime17. All about Max & Alec. Minor Lang.
1. ZY

**Max and Alec Scrambled**

_So…I LOVE the ABC's Challenge Going on Right Now for M/A and I Decided to Join the fray. However, I'm going to Post in Reverse, Starting with "Y" Simply Because I was most inspired by the last Half of the Alphabet and I didn't want to wait to post them. I'm open to constructive criticism, and I disclaim. Wish I could get the format a little better, but alas I'm not skilled in that area. If I owned Dark Angel Jensen would've had WAY more screen time with his blue towel. Lol_

**Zipper**

"Oh my God Max, what in the hell are you doing?" Logan stood staring in the doorway of Command, mouth hanging open. Frankly he was quite shocked. He KNEW Max had admitted to her and Alec being together, but if he was being honest he'd started doubting his own eyes after their move to T.C., especially after the flag raising ceremony. But now, he was starting to doubt his doubt on Max's feelings.

"Logan! What are you doing here?" Max blurted out, face blooming into a cherry red. Logan swallowed hard and averted his eyes to the floor, unable to suppress his acute embarrassment and speak to her at the same time. She was currently half sprawled in Alec's lap as he was seated in a rolling chair and well…she'd been flushed before he'd spoken up. She was on her knees and while no one seemed to be in any immediate state of undress, it was very suggestive of where, exactly she'd been heading with her hands on Alec's hip and high on his thigh and oh god, it was time to go.

"I was uh, going to bring you that report you wanted earlier…but uh, clearly you're…busy." He coughed and choked over the last word and swiftly turned out of the doorway and nearly slammed straight into Mole who was grinning, shotgun slung causally over his shoulder.

"In a bit of a hurry Logie? Don't let me stop you." He shot an amused look over Logan's shoulder into the room he'd just vacated. "Unless you wanna stick around for the show, us trannies are quite the exhibitionists…" He trailed off suggestively and Logan could hear the murmur of Max and Alec's heated voices, the rustle of clothing and then the dull thud of two bodies hitting the floor. Time. To. Go.

Mole watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the ordinary hurried away. Oh man. Life might get rough in T.C. with a lack of supplies, housing and a host of angry people ready to lynch them, but there was no shortage of entertainment. Like right now for instance. Through a sequence of events that he still didn't understand and that would probably be impossible to repeat, Max had ended up sprawled across Alec's lap during the morning meeting, and as if her flustered embarrassed rage wasn't amusing enough, her hair had somehow gotten trapped in his zipper.

Mole felt a tug of a smirk at his lips, man he really needed to get an explanation from Alec about why his fly was half way down at the morning meeting, as it was sure to be an elaborate, ridiculous tale. Waltzing through the doorway he eyed the two transgenics squabbling, tussling and snarking at each other. Mole stepped up to the pair and snicked a pair of scissors together and pulled an 'Alec' like smirk unto his face.

"So where exactly would you like me to snip?" Mole announced to the red faced and panting trangenics. Max's returning smirk was triumphant and evil but it was the look on Alec's suddenly bloodless face that was, well, priceless.

_End._

**Yawn**

Max was slowly going crazy. The lights were beautiful, romantic even. Soft instrumental music was playing and Logan was in his element. He was talking to Senator Ted Williams III in the corner and she was supposed to be waiting for her opportunity to sneak upstairs for a little recon for Eyes Only. But apparently the guards had no need for a bathroom break, and she certainly wasn't dressed to flirt her way up. She glanced slyly from the corner of her eyes before slipping her gloved hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn. Man was she ever bo-…

"Bored yet Maxie?" Max's head suddenly snapped up in attention. _Oh god. How in the hell had he even gotten in??_

"Alec!" Max hissed through her teeth "You aren't supposed to be here!"

"I'm offended Max! You think I'd miss the party of the year, free booze, smooze and easy marks that'll have me sitting in pork rinds and beer for a year just because you so rudely failed to invite your good buddy Alec? Tsk. Tsk." The light in his eyes was downright mischievous. Then Max noticed that he was dressed to the nines in a very expensive looking, expertly tailored tux. She hated to admit it, but Alec looked good.

"Where the hell did you get that from? Steal it?" Max sneered at him.

"Yup. High quality threads required for this gig Max, and I'm always prepared, if not ready. As I'm sure Biggs informed you." His grin was wicked and Max really, really wanted to smack it right off of his face. "Nice dress Max, but you look like a nun."

In deference to Logan and his anti-Maxine going on, Max had been forced to wear a modest, long sleeved, slightly puffy floor length gown. It was silk, designer threads and Max was certainly working it for all it was worth, but it was so NOT her style. Didn't mean he had to point it out. Ass.

"You're an ass. An uninvited one if I recall so why don't you scram before I get you bounced out of here on your egotistical ass?" Max smiled prettily around her snarl.

"Enough with the ass, or I'm going to think you've got some designs on it." Alec wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. "And if you'll recall, I _was_ invited, remember? I asked if you wanted to be my date on Saturday for some food, drinks, and you know general merriment that doesn't end in boredom." Alec snagged a glass of champagne from a passing waiter before downing it in a single gulp.

"I told you I was doing an Eyes Only gig, and didn't have time to sit at Crash watching you play pool with Sketchy, just like any other night!" she hissed at him.

Alec glanced at the speculative looks they were getting from the neighboring couples. Alec snagged her arm and whisked her out onto the balcony. Once there he tugged her into the corner, partially hidden by a large flowering bush. Max started tussling with him and finally succeeded in jerking away from him only to sprawl back into the prickly, flowering bush, where she felt her dress start to snag.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?! Look at my dress! I'm going to kick your ass pretty boy!" Max started yanking furiously at her dress, heedless of the tearing sound of fabric, only stopping when her hair started to get caught up too. "Yugh!" And Alec was laughing at her. The jerk. Max was going to castrate him.

Alec stifled his laughter and approached Max and muttered "Here, let me. Just stand still you idiot." Max sent him the '_I will burn you alive with the retinas of my eyes death glare_' that usually sent the most hardened of men running. Good thing Alec was practically immune, as she sent it to him on a near daily basis. He stooped down when she finally gave up and stopped struggling every time he got near her.

On the left side of her dress, the under ruffles (_dear god Max in ruffles was so totally worth anything else he had to put up with tonight_) were snagged on the thorny branches of the bush. Seriously, who planted evil scratchy bushes on the balcony? Wasn't that where you went to have a romantic rendezvous? Alec was starting to think the Senator was a masochist after all. The thick silk overlaying it had been ripped several inches up. Well, only one thing for it really. Max was probably going to kill him.

Max was starting to get flustered. God, what if someone came out and saw them? Max was looking frazzled and Alec was kneeling in front of her…Good God she hoped Logan just thought she was upstairs doing the recon. The silence was getting uncomfortable.

"How the hell did you get invited anyway? This is a closed event, invite only, and Logan had a hard enough time getting in." Alec smirked up at her, and Max could see he was going to say something perverted. She smacked him on the head.

"Hey! Not my fault you set yourself up to talk about Logie boy's difficulties…" he ducked another swat and his voice became muffled as he went back to work on her skirts. "Anyway, Normal got me in. His first cousin is married to the Senator's oldest daughter, and he and Teddy always bonded at Thanksgiving over their mutual love of cage fighting…" Alec looked up at her when she started sputtering, taking in her slightly horrified reaction. "Turns out Teddy is a Monty Cora fan himself, and Normal knows how much I care about politics today." Another amused grin. "So, Normal asked me if I'd like to come along. Teddy offered to let me bring someone." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I rather think Normal was disappointed with that." Alec shrugged and went back to her skirts.

Normal. Ronald Regan. Her ornery, Republican boss had high up, powerful connections to Senators? God her life sucked. Max felt a rush of cool air on her legs, and looked down in time to see Alec rip away all the under ruffles of her skirt and pitch it over the side of the balcony. The heavy silk fell back against her leg, free of the branches, tear effectively hidden. Alec patted her leg, and eased up, almost catlike to continue to grin in her horrified face. Seriously, sucked so hard.

"Let's see what we can do about your hair, huh?" Then before she could react to his causal destruction of her clothes, Alec was in her personal space, softly tilting her chin down to the right and her gaze landed on his chest. Was it suddenly getting a little warm out here? Max could feel his hand in her hair, unusually gentle in the untangling of the loose strands. Her heart rate picked up a little as he moved in even closer, reaching further back to untangle the final piece. Max's nose was just below his collarbone, and he…smelled good. Really good. But for the life of her, she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

Alec was taking his time, simply because Max seemed to be allowing it. Her hair was soft, and he softly inhaled the scent. _Mmm. _Something primal stirred within his chest. She didn't look like herself earlier. Like some prissy old school teacher. Alec wanted to fix that. See his Max; here in his arms in the pale moonlight, next to the damned bush he was beginning to hate less by the second. He was about to do something stupid, but right now he didn't care.

Alec delved both of his hands into her updo, softly pulling the pins from her hair and letting it cascade around her face in soft waves. Max let out a startled gasp, but instead of socking him in the face, gut or god even the balls, she clutched his shoulders in her hands. Encouraged, Alec swept her hair back over her shoulders to fall down her back and he took the tops of her sleeves and tugged. Hard. The material groaned and slipped over the tops of her shoulders to pull down her neckline, exposing her collarbone. Alec paused mesmerized by the sight of her creamy skin brushed almost sliver in the pale moonlight.

He was aware that his breath had started to come out a little bit faster, a little more ragged. God, what was she doing to him?

Max could hear her heartbeat thudding in her ears. God, what was he doing to her? Why wasn't she stopping him? As if her very reaction to him wasn't embarrassing enough, she didn't even try to stop him tugging at the top of her dress. By god, she'd wanted to encourage him at the little thrill that chased down her spine and coiled low in her belly. Her breathing increased to match his, and she looked into his eyes, finding the pupil blown wide, the hazel-green dimmed to a ring, hazing around the desire she could see reflected back at her. _Did- did she want Alec here? Doing this to her?_ His hands tightened their grip, and she saw the exact moment when he gave in. He was going to kiss her. She could still stop him. It would change everything. She should stop him, knee him in the groin, leave him hanging and go back into the beautiful party. The boring party. He licked his lips, but before Alec could lean down, Max gripped his shoulders and shoved him back.

_Shit. Shit. Max was so gonna kill him, and he deserved it. He was gonna kiss her of all the stupid-_ Alec's inner monologue stopped when she didn't exactly shove him away. Max pushed him back, and tugged him around and shoved him back into the prickly ass bush. Alec grunted at the force of her blow, and reached up to swat at the scratchy prickles and petals raining down on him. And promptly stopped caring about it the moment Max's fists gripped his lapels and tugged his mouth down to hers. _Huh. Guess she just wanted to kiss me on her own terms. Typical Max. _All thought abruptly stopped when Max's tongue slid against his lower lip, and Alec opened up to her probing. As their tongues tangled, Max arched into him and Alec slid his hands down her back, to her ass and pressed her firmly against him.

Max wasn't sure how long they were out there, making out like a couple of randy teenagers in that damn bush, but Max wasn't sure she wanted it to end. When her body dictated that she needed more oxygen, Max yanked herself away from his mouth. She was only slightly embarrassed to find she had ruined her dress, by climbing up Alec gripping his hips in her legs like a vice. No way was a seamstress ever going to be able to fix the rips in her dress.

Still panting she reached forward and pulled a couple of petals out of his hair. Alec's eyes looked a little glazed, but his grip was firm on her ass and back. Max leaned back a little more keeping one arm wrapped around his shoulder and back, but let the hand pulling the petals out of his hair trace down his temple to his lower lip. His mouth was swollen, and moist. Max could feel a fission of lust course through her.

"Well, pretty boy I'll say this for you." She paused making sure she had his full attention on her. "You sure know how to keep your date from getting bored."

_End._

_Authors Note: Wow. I totally wasn't expecting Yawn to go where it did. I was planning on a little angsty fighting. But my muse wouldn't be satisfied with out a little balcony loving. Still, I couldn't believe how long it was in comparison to Zipper. Eh. Hope you enjoyed. I'm furiously working on Xerox, My love child. I might make it an actual fic, but I gotta shorten it up for the prompt challenge. Reviews are always welcome._


	2. X

XeroxXerox

_Author's Note. I was inspired for this particular piece by the Supernatural Season 3 Finale. So, Spoilers There Abouts for Season 3's Finale, Mystery Spot, and Season 2's Croaton. If for some unknown reason you've never seen the show (aka you live in a Jensen Ackles free hole, poor babies or you've just never bothered to catch the show horrified gasp ) please Google the show for a synopsis for full disclosure on the episodes. _

_But here's a Basic Need to Know about that Show. Two Brothers fight evil, supernatural, mythical-type creatures as taught by their Dad, a former Marine. Dean (played by Jensen Ackles) the oldest brother, sold his soul to save younger bro Sam, and they've been trying to get him out of the deal all season. At the end, Dean's in hell and Sam's left topside with some freaky powers of his own. Kass is my own OC character._

_So onto My AU world. Pulse happened a little earlier, but not as bad as on DA, not kicking us to quite 3__rd__ world status, but computer records got wiped, a lot of techno crashed and the U.S. is now just climbing out of its slump. _

_Hopefully all other questions are answered within the story. It'll be longer than my others, simply because I like it so much and want it to answer most of the questions I'll pose. I'm fully planning on making this a full multiple chapter fic, but for the purposes of this prompt, I'm slicing and dicing to give you the gist from my first couple of chapters. Sorry, there is just not enough time to do it the justice I think it deserves and I hope you agree. ____ Story begins about 6 months after Freak Nation for DA, and immediately following the Supernatural Season 3 Finale. I disclaim. I don't own Supernatural (damn it) and If I owned Dark Angel, Season 2 & 3 would've been MUCH different. Oh, well. Lack of creative control sucks._

……………………………………………………………………………………

"What the hell is this?" Max slapped an 8x11 piece of paper down on the top of Alec's worn, slightly wobbly desk. Alec heaved a sigh of resignation upon seeing the Xerox pressed flat in front of him. Prying it out from under her clenched fingers he peered at it thoughtfully before tartly replying to her explosion into his office.

"It's paper Maxie. Did you know the ordinaries invented it in about 1600 BC? They made it from lots of materials; rice, animal skin to name a few but now it's mostly made from tree pulp," he paused and looked mischievously up at her glowering down at him through his thick, sooty lashes. "You write on it." He added helpfully. "With ink, preferably. Speaking of paper," he added ignoring her glare "I have far too much paperwork. Think we can-" Max growled and cut him off before he got off on some stupid argument guaranteed to make her loose her temper.

"I know what paper IS you jackass, what I'm wondering is what's this propaganda you've got cooked up now without my knowledge!" Max seethed.

"Charming the masses through soothing, attractive pictures?" Alec glanced pointedly down at his own face smugly smirking up at them from the desk. He leaned back into his worn leather chair and crossed his arms back behind his head, mirroring the facial expression exactly. "Handsome devil if you ask me."

But it wasn't just any piece of paper. That Xeroxed piece of paper showing Alec's face changed everything Max thought she knew about her world turned it upside down and inside out.

………………………………………………………………………………..

The resemblance was remarkable. Sam stopped breathing for a moment, lungs frozen and felt his knees buckle a little as he slipped back into the brick wall. His fingers trembled and the paper shook in his hands. Kass had prepared him but this….this…was still too much. Shit.

……………………………………………………………………………

So this was the genetics genius Logan wanted her to meet? She hardly looked old enough to have graduated college, much less be able to perform complicated genetic equations any better than Max could. _What a dump._ She glanced around the cluttered old Cold War bunker, checking her surroundings like a good little solider for potential exits and dangers. She felt Alec still beside her in the doorway and glanced over at him only to start muttering against the male species when she saw his expression. How typical. Alec's eyes were glued to the girl's legs, propped up on the desk, in a short denim skirt that stretched taut high up on her thigh. Her bare feet were crossed at the ankle, drawing the muscle into a male, eye pleasing pose. _God. _Max could barely contain her disgusted snort. That was another thing, what the hell kind of geneticist wore skimpy skirts to work? But a glance around the room showed strewn papers, complicated looking formulas and punett squares littered across three separate chalkboards. Definitely the work of some crazy, but smart type of person. And Alec was still staring. She elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Ow!" Alec yelped and rubbed at his side. He pulled his gaze away from the girls legs to glare at her. "What the hell was that for?"

"Eyes front solider!" Max hissed and noted out of the corner of her eye that the girl had noticed their arrival, and swung her feet to the floor. She drew the dark fabric further down her legs as she stood up. _Finally_.

"Max, I was looking at her tattoos, okay!"

"Whatever you perv, I saw your eyes glued to her legs, so don't give me that crap."

Alec managed to look both affronted and amused at the same time.  
"Uh, yeah I know. Half her right leg is taken up in a pattern that looks really familiar, in fact kind of looks like Minoan." He paused to look meaningfully at her. "You know the ancient language your body is riddled with? The one that's supposed to be dead." Max squirmed a little under is gaze. _Oh._ "Or did you miss that part Maxie, being too busy noticing your _good buddy _Alec's eyes?" he arched an eyebrow and Max felt her scowl deepen. _Whatever_.

It was the sharp intake of breath the girl took when she saw Alec in the doorway that had Max focusing back to the problem at hand. The girl was staring at Alec in pure amazement. While this was not a totally unusual reaction as Alec was a decidedly very good looking and charming guy, the reaction bothered her. Although Max could argue the charming point, finding him more annoying than anything most of the time. But it was the intensity of the girl's eyes that was unnerving, especially given their odd color. The light caught across her face, showing they were a pale, intense blue that looked almost purple in the dimness of the dank room. Framed by long black hair and pale, pale skin gave her a slightly unhinged look. Max took one cautious step closer to Alec.

……………………………………………………………………………

Kass couldn't help but stare. He was beautiful. My god, it just might work.

……………………………………………………………………

There was a tall man staring at them. Well, if Alec wanted to be more specific, the young man was really staring at him. Intensely. But Alec couldn't quite make out the meaning of his stare.

"Looks like you've got a fan pretty boy, want me to go get his number for you?" Max asked, breaking away from looking over Kass's shoulder and impishly eyed the man with the floppy brown hair. "He's cute." She turned back to gaze at him, and stilled at the expression on Alec's face. It made her nervous. Like Alec was slipping away from her very eyes, right in front of her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "Alec? You hearing me?" Max tried to tug his elbow, bring his gaze back to her, but Alec shook off her hand and planted himself more firmly in front of the strange man.

Alec felt a slight crackle in the air, meeting the young man's unwavering stare. He should've felt threatened, to have a stranger staring at him with so much emotion in his eyes. But all Alec could feel was a connection. _Finally. Purpose._

……………………………………………………………………………

Alec knew Max would be pissed at him when she finally caught up, but _something, _some instinct or feeling was telling him he could trust Sam and Kass. It was almost like a connection with Sam, and Alec couldn't really explain it. But some part of him felt… settled. Alec just had to see if they could prove their crazy theory. Kass was walking nervously besides him, chewing on the corner of her thumb. She glanced over at him with those unnerving eyes, assessing. She stopped, grabbed his sleeve to stop him, and Alec allowed it but stepped further back when she made to move in closer.

"I really need to mention something else before we go in there."

"Oh god. What now? What other craziness could you possibly have in store for me?"

"I know you don't exactly believe everything Sam and I have told you…" Alec snorted and gave her a 'well, duh' look. "But," Kass pressed on "because of Dean's vulnerable state, his body is being highly protected from possession, mutilation and…our preservation method is going to seem really strange. We won't stop you from approaching, but please try not to disturb the markings on the floor. It's very important. Please, Alec. Think what you want for right now, but I need your word you won't mess with anything in there."

"How the hell do I know it's really him, that it isn't some elaborate hoax put on by White to lure me in?" Alec's green eyes flashed a burning gold, sending a trill of fear at the animal gazing back at her. Kass hurried to reassure him.

"You can touch Dean; in fact I would like to observe any potential effects of contact, but the stuff around him, that you have to be careful of." Alec gave her a puzzled frustrated look and tugged on the collar of his leather jacket.

"This is so fucked up. What the hell do I need to avoid in there?" Alec's mutter oozed disbelief. "You don't have chicken feet tacked up anywhere do you?"

"Nothing quite so ominously grim." The flick of his eyes told her he didn't quite believe her. "Okay for example, you'll see salt lining the doors and windows. Don't break that line, ever." Alec's eyebrow rose in disbelief.

"Salt? What the hell? Why would you need salt lines anywhere there wasn't food seasoning required?" _This is some kinda mess you got yourself in here, Smart Alec. _Kass tugged harder on his sleeve to keep his attention.

"I'm not kidding Alec. Sam would consider breaking the lines an attack against Dean. You might have his brother's face, but I don't know how he'll react to a perceived threat to Dean. I-I'm a little worried about his intensity." Kass let her gaze drift over his shoulder almost as if she were conjuring up images that frightened her. Alec could see the real worry and the defeat in her eyes as she said it. The look made a shiver run down his spine, reminding him he was in unfamiliar territory. "I think the hope you're providing by even coming to see Dean, your willingness to at least hear him out is keeping him from completely shutting down." Her creepy, intense eyes refocused and bored into his. "Can you promise me Alec? That you won't purposely try and harm the Winchesters?"

Alec sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. Christ if everything wasn't going FUBAR. Squeezing the back of his neck, Alec tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. Max didn't want him anywhere near these people and their "crazy" ideas. As if just being near the insane might tempt him down the same path as Ben. _No._ He was strong enough to make it through Manticore; he could make his way in this reality. Max didn't own him and he owed it to himself to see where this went. Why he felt connected to Sam Winchester and this crazy life.

A deep breath and his decision was made. "I promise I won't try to harm the Winchesters, as long as they aren't trying to kill me or mine. That's all I can do, so if you want Sam to have his hope, Dean to have his soul, then you better agree. I've got to protect my family too."

Kass offered a small smile. "Thanks. That's a smart promise. Of course, you do realize don't you, that Sam and Dean are your family too?" Alec blinked at her. "I confirmed it. Dean's DNA was your primary donor for your human DNA. You guys are practically twins, and that makes Sam and Dean your big brothers."

……………………………………………………………………………….

"You stupid idiot! What in the hell were you thinking?! I ORDERED you not to leave T.C.!" Max's fist flew at him again. He ducked to the side and he could _feel _the force behind her blow as it whizzed past his ear. She was looking for blood. _Shit._

"Max I had to see if they were on the level!" Alec retreated another step and held up his hands entreatingly. "Besides, Logan found them first! I'm just seeing it through!" Max's eyes flashed red. Literally. _Uh-Oh. Wrong thing to say._

"These people are nuts Alec! I won't have you risking yourself and by extension all of T.C. to satisfy some curious itch! You're coming home RIGHT NOW!" Max bellowed and managed to latch unto his sleeve and tried to yank him out the door. But Alec was pissed now too. _Who in the hell does she think she is?_ Alec dug in his heels and shook Max off, no easy feat.

"I'm staying right here Max. I'm going to see this through. Help my family." Alec's eyes bore into her face. "I'm staying. You can't stop me. You don't own me Max, and you don't have a claim to me."

……………………………………………………………………………….

It got bloody, fast. Max had lost control of her rational self. The need to protect Alec from these people was so overwhelming she was willing to knock him out and carry him to safety. Unfortunately Alec was not being cooperative. He was fighting her tooth and nail, not just defense anymore but offensively trying to contain her. The animal in her raged at the show of dominance.

Alec caught her right hook in his fist and stopped her knee from dethroning his jewels. Twisting her arm behind her back Alec shoved her into the wall, hard. Max heard the dry wall crack and shook her head a little to clear it. He kept her pinned with his body and she was effectively trapped by his hard thighs. His right hand slammed into the cracked wall next to her face in clear frustration.

"Dammint Max! Frigg'n Calm down okay?!" He was panting and the action kept his chest brushing against her back. Max was surprised to find lust coursing through her body in response. Max was torn between embarrassment at her body's animal reaction to him and the raging fury that still wanted to protect him from himself. Max, queen of avoidance, let the rage wash back over her. When Alec leaned closer to her ear, presumably to try and talk sense into her, she struck with the back of her head. She felt him move away, but she still managed to clip him slightly in the mouth and lower jaw. Enough for his grip to loosen slightly and she wrenched her arm free.

Max fisted his shirt and managed to land her right hook this time. Was satisfied by the feeling of flesh bruising and splitting underneath her knuckles. He popped her back in the mouth and it loosened her grip slightly. They clutched each other, trading blows alternatively, snarling, giving and receiving as good as they got. So focused on their fight, they failed to notice Sam's arrival until it was too late.

"STOP!" Sam was horrified to see the two transgenics bloodying themselves. But when they continued to ignore him, Sam felt his temper begin to fray. Usually it was miles long, but that was before Dean. _Dean. _The sight of the Max woman bloodying Alec, who had the same face as Dean was too much for him to handle. He lashed out. "I said, STOP IT! NOW!" Sam felt the flash of light course through his vision.

Max felt herself being _torn_ away from Alec, and flung like a rag doll to the opposite end of the room to crack the plaster on the other wall. That finally cleared the rage haze and she blinked rapidly, turning her gaze from Alec, still in the middle of the room looking stunned and Sam, panting angrily in the doorway. Alec spoke for her when he turned, put himself between Max and Sam, wiped blood from his lip and growled.

"What in the hell was that Sam?!"

……………………………………………………………………………….

"It was messed up, ok? I don't know how to explain it exactly, but I'm immune to some weirdo demon virus. Kass thinks it's what your breeding cult plans on dropping on your ass in the near future. It's not a sickness, per say. You don't seem to die directly from contact, but it…changes you."

"Changes you how, exactly?" Alec quietly murmured from beneath his ice pack. Sam sighed and ran a hand tiredly through his limp hair, looking at Dean lying so still on the bed. Just looking. It was so wrong that he was still, silent. Then Sam turned back to the waiting transgenics and spoke.

"People exhibited symptoms about three hours after blood to blood contact, violent outbursts, an intense need to infect others, it was...complicated. Neighbors were dragging each other out of their houses, beating them, bleeding them. The infected wouldn't let us leave the town limits. Because even though they weren't themselves after being infected, they could play at it, act almost TOO normal until they'd break out into a violent rage to accomplish their goal."

"What goal was that, exactly?" Max bit out harshly. She was still a little bitter about the wall; her shoulder was still aching almost an hour later.

"To Infect Me." Sam stated.

"Why would they do that?" Max asked caution seeming to seep into her very self.

"Honestly? I have no idea. It probably had something to do with Yellow Eyes, but Dean wasted him and whatever plans he had were shot to shit. All I know is, there's a war coming and this Sandman wacko made you immune too Max."

………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Can't you ever just trust me Max?" Alec pleaded.

It was a calmer argument this time. Alec wished it could've been a discussion for Christ's sake, but that wasn't Max. At least she wasn't throwing punches again. Was probably still remembering how Sam had reacted the last time they'd exchanged blows. Their tones were hushed, to keep the humans in the room out of it, but Alec was pretty sure they knew what they were fighting about.

He approached her carefully, he knew better than to make a grab at her now, and catching her eye he flicked his towards to door. An invitation to continue this in a location a little more private. Max's full lips settled into a grim line, but she nodded curtly. They stepped through the doorway, Alec turning to give Sam a look that said, _Stay. I got this._ Like they'd been in the same unit for years and could communicate in a glance. Max tramped down on the feeling of jealousy that rose within her. What did she have to be jealous of?

"I do trust you Alec." No pause in the argument. "You're my second in command at T.C. I trust you more than probably anybody else right now, even if you disobeyed my instructions." Max spun to face him in the hallway, a heavy look to her gaze.

"Yeah, you trust me to do my job, Maxie. But you don't exactly trust me to make my own decisions about my personal life." Alec leaned his shoulder into the wall, wincing slightly as his ribs protested.

"You can't exactly fault me for that, can you Alec? You attract trouble like nobody I've ever seen and you don't seem to care!" Max tramped down on the volume of her voice, realizing she'd gone a little shrieky at the end. Clenching her fists, she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted when he frowned at her.

"I care Max. I'm not as reckless as before and you know it. This whole argument isn't about me. It's about you-" Max started sputtering, but Alec raised his hand and cut her off before continuing. "It's about you…and Ben." That put the wind right out of her sails, and she sank back into the wall and slid to the ground. "Max I know the Winchester's scare you. But I'm not Ben, okay? I never was. Anymore than I'm that Dean guy. We have the same DNA sure, but I'm more than my DNA right? Isn't that what you've been saying all this time?" Max nodded glumly from the floor.

"I _know_ you aren't Ben. I've always known that, since the first time you opened that smart-alec mouth of yours." Alec smirked down at her and slowly started sliding down the wall to join her on the floor, knees brushing softly. "But," Max felt ashamed to find tears springing in her eyes again, and wiped at them furiously. "BUT-" she continued "Sometimes you remind me of him. Not the whole crazy part, but of the boy who looked out for me when I was scared and shaking in the dark barracks of Manticore." She peeped up from under her lashes to look at his shocked, stunned face. "I just want you to be safe too, Alec. I'm tired of losing the people I care about."

"Max, you aren't going to lose me," Alec started but Max reached forward to grab his collar and haul him closer to her.

"Don't tell me that! You don't know what will happen! These people might not mean you any harm Alec, but that doesn't mean they won't get you killed all the same got it?" Alec looked into her furious, concerned gaze and reached up gently remove her hand from his shirt.

"I hear you Max, okay? I hear you. I'll be careful. I promise." And he didn't let go of her hand, simply held it close to him, leaning over their twinned knees. "Trust me Max, I'll be careful." Max held his gaze a moment longer, brown eyes assessing his sincerity and released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Okay." Alec's bruised bloody face split into an ear length grin.

"That's my girl".

_End. For Now!_

_Author's Note: Yessss!! happy dance I fully plan on fleshing this out after Scrambled is over, but I'm still so happy with this cut down version. I had fun writing the fight scene with Sam. Winchester Angst to follow in the extension! _


	3. W

"Royal Flush

_Author's Note: Thank, Thank, Thank you to everyone for being so patient! I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get this out today, as some crazy-ass family shit went down, but I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with how this one turned out. I must note though, that I'm telling the first part of the story with two little flashbacks thrown in. I hope they are relatively clear. And while I've never read the DA Books, I've heard a little of what they are about, and I'm including a little here. Hope I'm not too far off base. As always, I disclaim as I own literally nothing, (consider I only have 2/3 of this computer, the hard drive isn't even mine!) and reviews are always welcome. Some things were pointed out to me that I fully intend to go back and fix, if I ever get around to it. But I __**DO**__ note them. So Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy!_

Wager

"That's a Royal Flush boys."

With the flourish of a seasoned player the cards spread in a graceful arch across the worn, slightly wobbly table.

"Aw shit man. That's it. I'm totally out." Ice glared at Alec through his shock of white hair. "You are one lucky bastard." Alec slid a smirk across his face before leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms behind his head. Sketchy took a swig of his beer before flipping up his blue lens glasses, and adding his two cents.

"If you weren't wearing short sleeves I'd have to wonder if you really weren't lucky and just had a few tricks up your sleeve my man." Alec flashed amused teeth at Sketch in response. Mole snorted a laugh around his cigar and reached for the discarded cards to reshuffle and deal the deck. Logan simply let out a tired sounding sigh and eyed his chips balefully.

It was Tuesday night and the guys were enjoying a quiet poker game in the kitchen of the mess hall located just north of command center in T.C. What started out as a causal gathering of money, males and cigar smoke had turned into a semi-regular ritual through the war and into the "peaceful" negotiations. It had originally come about as Alec's attempt to infuse a little transgenic/ordinary bonding time at Max's "request".

……………………………………………………………………………………………

"Max," Alec huffed out a sigh "Just what do you want me to do about it? He's your 'were-not-like-that' boyfriend." He ignored Max's sputtering. "You help him fit in."

"_We aren't like that Alec! For the last time he's not my boyfriend!" Max smacked his arm when she caught him dramatically rolling his eyes. "We aren't!" Max's exasperation was palpable at Alec's unhelpfulness-slash most annoying transgenic on the planet routine. She started clenching and unclenching her fists, resisting the urge to hit him again. Hard. She had half a mind that he kind of liked it, or at least that he liked riling her up. Max refused to give the jerk the satisfaction._

"_Whatever Max, he's your "friend" then," Alec's long fingers curved out imaginary quotes when he dropped the "F" word and Max visibly twitched before her frown deepened. He was going to give her premature wrinkles. "-So why do I have to be the one to grease his wheels, so to speak?"_

…………………………………………………………………………………………

"I have half a mind to frisk you anyways." Ice glared at Alec suspiciously. In response, Alec's eyebrows shot up to his hairline for a moment before he turned in his chair and kicked playfully at Ice's foot.

"Aww, I didn't know you cared!" Alec cooed and leaned into table towards Ice curving his palm to cup his face and fluttered his eyelashes at him. Sketchy started choking on his beer. Logan thumped his back helpfully. "Is this the part where you ask me what I'm doing on later tonight?" Alec asked breathlessly.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Because you're better at it, that's why!" Max blurted out. Alec blinked at her and when a grin started to form, Max finally hit her breaking point. She turned and started stomping away.

"_Aw, come on Max! It's not my fault you had a Freudian slip!" he called out at her retreating back. Max spun back on her heel and pointed an angry finger at him._

"_You are a perverted jerk!" she shrieked at him. Alec could see then, just how worn out and worried she was overall. Damnit. The things he did for this woman. When Max turned back to continue her storm out of his office, he blurred over and blocked the doorway._

"_Come on Maxie, I'm just josh'n ya." He placed a hand over his heart and gave her his 'sincere eyes'. "I'll make it up to you, cause that's the kinda good, stand up sorta guy I am-" he gracefully ignored her disbelieving snort "-AND because I am such an all around handsome, nice guy I'll go ahead and take care of Logie-bear's popularity inadequacies." _

_Max continued to burn her stare through him, which Alec ignored while he waited for the fight to drain out. She held on to the anger for another 30 seconds before she finally deflated and collapsed back unto the wall next to the door. Her urge for violence had rapidly evaporated once she'd seen that while he was using his sincere eyes on her, there was actual concern in his voice. He would take care of it, of that much she was sure._

………………………………………………………………………………………

Ice looked a little stunned. He jumped, almost guiltily when he heard a voice ring out from behind him.

"Sorry to disappoint you Ice, but pretty boy's already got plans for tonight."

"Maaax," Alec drawled without looking away from Ice "to what do I owe this immense pleasure on my night off?" He finally turned his gaze away from the other transgenic and flicked amused eyes over to where she was standing, blending into the darkness with her head to toe black attire. "Hmmm, and here I was hoping you'd come to defend my honor."

"Whatever, we've got work to do. Dix got a lead on the group that's been snatching up supporters." Max ignored Logan's sudden sitting up in his chair. "We're headed to command to brief before we head out. Playtimes over for tonight boys." She turned and headed back out into the darkness, confident in the knowledge that Alec wouldn't be far behind.

"Should I come along?" Logan asked in a hopeful voice, though there was a trace of resignation there too. Alec glanced over at Mole who had inelegantly swept the poker supplies into the box with one big swipe. That'd be a bitch to clean out next time.

"Nah, I think me and Max'll handle it fine." At Logan's dejected face he carefully added, "Besides it won't be long before Max forgives and forgets, so I'd enjoy your little vacation if I were you." Logan gave Alec a look of disbelief as he turned to follow the same path Max had taken earlier.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Logan was drunk. Really, really drunk. Alec wrinkled his nose a little at the smell of alcohol sweating out of him in waves. Sometimes a transgenic sense of smell had a downside. He stepped around the end of the couch to get a better look at the ordinary.

"_Whazzit do you want? Here to k-kill me? Go on, I deserve it." Logan stuttered out when he blearily noticed Alec standing in front of him. Alec sank down to his haunches so he could look Logan in the eye. "I do, I deserve it for- for lying to her. Admit it." He put the bottle of whiskey to his lips again and made to take another drink. Alec slapped the bottle away from him and Logan jumped a little at the sound of it breaking against the wall. Logan's eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I never wanted to hurt her. It just all go so out of hand, and I didn't know how to fix it."_

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Max? Forgive and forget? We are talking about the same girl?" Ice asked those remaining in the room. "She's capable of that? Man she's still pissed about me dinging her bike in the garage last month!"

Mole's eyes glimmered in the semi-dark of the room and he paused in his "clean-up" to shoot an amused glance around the room. He leaned back in his chair and kicked feet up onto Alec's vacated one.

"She forgave Alec." Sketchy said thoughtfully. When Ice looked over at him disbelievingly he added helpfully "When he tried to kill her that is. I think there was a bomb in his head or something? So, yeah. She'll hold a grudge for a while but Max is totally capable of forgiveness." He eyed the bottom of his glass, woeful that it was empty.

"She might have forgiven him, but Max hasn't forgotten. She'll never forget." Logan said sadly from his corner. It was obvious to the rest of the room he wasn't really talking about Alec. Mole wasn't about to let it get all girly and emo tonight. Nope. Plan B.

"Well, gentleman I think we've got ourselves a little debate over our fearless leader's more, shall we say softer side?" Mole dug in the pocket of his jacket searching for a lighter. He settled for a half used box of matches and struck a flame to ignite a new cigar. After a deep inhale, Mole let the smoke stream out of his lungs and mouth in a slow, lazy stream. "I think we've got ourselves an old fashioned wager."

Sketchy blinked at Mole for a moment and glanced around the table, a bit confused. And he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the booze. He'd only had three tonight on Alec's advice to improve his game. Didn't seem to do much either way, and Sketch was kind of wishing he had another drink in his hand. Sounds like he was about to lose more money.

"Wager? What kind of wager?" Ice asked with a little hint of suspicion.

"Why about whether or not Max is capable of forgiving and forgetting." Mole stuck the cigar in the corner of his lip and leaned forward over the table. "Pretty easy way to test it too."

"What? How?" Logan asked indignantly

"Simple. We bet on whether or not Max has forgiven, and/or more or less forgotten about the infamous incident with Alec." Mole paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, forget as much as a transgenic photographic memory will let you that is." He paused a moment before continuing "My personal thought is that she hasn't fully forgiven him yet, she'll certainly never forget, but they've got enough unrequited sexual tension to power T.C. for a month, so I predict some sort of heat induced sexual encounter." Logan's jaw dropped open.

"Just how in the hell would you be able to prove that?!" he was aware that Eyes Only probably shouldn't squawk, but this was just getting out of hand.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

"_Logan," Alec sighed and rubbed a hand over tired eyes "Seth DIED and you didn't tell her about it, in fact you lied about the circumstances and totally left out the part you played in his death." Alec didn't think it was possible, but Logan looked even more woe begotten than before. _

"_I know, I wish I could go back and change things. I'd give anything to take it all back."_

"_Well you can't." Alec bit out harshly. "So man up already. It's been two days of wallowing in YOUR grief, neglecting your duties. So as your commanding officer I'm telling you to sober the hell up." Logan blinked rapidly at Alec in confusion._

"_B-but Max told me to get out and never come back!"_

"_And what do you think is better? Slinking away with your tail tucked between your legs? Leaving us vulnerable and with a hole in security? Or should you get off the couch and face up to your responsibility in this fiasco and do what you can to make things right?"  
"Just what in the hell can I possibly do to make things better Alec? I can't bring Seth back!" Logan spat out. Alec's temper snapped. He grabbed Logan and hauled him up and into the nearest wall. _

"_What good are you doing here? You aren't the injured party, and we are fighting a god-damned war right now! You've got skills, connections to higher ups we don't have Logan! We need your help, and I'll deal with Max on this." Alec loosened his grip on Logan's shirt and allowed the man's feet to touch the floor again. "She may not forgive you right away, and she sure as hell will never forget, but she IS capable of forgiving you. She loves you, even now. You'd be an idiot to run away."_

………………………………………………………………………………………

"Oh, the tension between them will crank up to twice the normal level, as I'm sure Max will flip out once the pheromones die off and I'd predict some sort of physical altercation that will lead to somebody catching them making out or dry-humping against a wall somewhere." Mole enjoyed watching Logan's eyes literally bug out of his head in response to his on-base observations.

"W-what? No! Max would never do that!" He sputtered out indignantly. "Max will probably forgive Alec, but it might be another year or so, and if he proves his continued worthiness to her. But she sees him as a brother! They'd never do-"Logan gestured vaguely in the air, which Mole guessed he was to interpret as heat sex, "-that" he finally bit out as a blush crept up his neck and face.

"So that's Logie-bear's stance on the whole Max/Alec situation. Any other takers? Ice?"

"No way man. I ain't getting involved in this hoopla. Max catches wind, and she'll tan your hides. I've no desire to be a rug, boots, lampshade or any other useful thing Max might get the urge to make me into. I'm headed for bed." He pushed back his chair and nodded at them before making a manly retreat.

"Sketchy?" Mole asked, swinging to look over at the scruffy looking kid. "You in or out?" Sketchy looked startled for a moment having gotten caught up in the drama of a Max/Alec hook-up via heat sex. Sure it was kinda kinky because they were his friends and all but he was well, a guy. He cleared his throat for moment before he spoke.

"Well, I'd have to say Max is over it all." At the disbelieving looks from the remaining two, Sketchy added "She's clearly forgiven him. She made him her SIC! And well OC and I think she's let the incident go, as one of his rebellious teenage antics, or something like that."

"He almost stabbed her through the eye and gave her barcode to White!" Logan exclaimed indignantly. "That's not something you are likely to ever forget!" Sketchy shrugged.

"That's Max for you. She'll forgive the seemingly unforgivable. I think the fact that he didn't hurt her, and she didn't have kick his ass is why she eventually got over it. She likes him now, even if she's always complaining about him." Sketchy scooted his chair back to stand up. "She's forgiven him, but I think she's still trying to forgive herself." Logan blinked at Sketchy almost owlishly.

"What do you mean?" Logan asked leaning forward in his chair towards him.

"Alec was only doing what he'd been taught to do, and she wasn't very nice to him. Even though he'd decided not to do it, and he would've died. Max said her family left when they were young, but Alec grew up there. I think she feels bad about everyone getting left behind. So, yeah. I think Max is trying to forgive herself for how she was with him, and I dunno. I kinda think maybe she might love him. She'll tell him when she's ready." Logan's eyes bugged out. Max never told him she loved him, so the thought of this confession seemed to fry his circuits. Mole stood up and clapped his hands.

"Well. There you go. It's a wager gentleman. We'll re-cap next week, eh? I've got to go join the meeting, see you later."

Sketchy turned to Logan who was still doing his best impersonation of a fish.  
"Ready to go?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sketchy came to awareness slowly, blinking away the fog that settled over his vision. He was somewhere in a dim warehouse from the looks of it. But last thing he remembered clearly was walking out of T.C. with Logan and meeting up with OC at the gates. Cindy'd been kickin it with her girl before she'd come to collect Alec from the game. Looking to his left Sketchy noted that Logan was still slumped over and bound up like a stuffed turkey. If memory served him right, Logan had tried to ineffectively fight off their attackers.

"The hell I am!" Cindy's voice boomed from his near right. Glancing over he saw Cindy was backing away from a big burly man in a mask. "Fool, you best be gett'n out of Oringal's face before she rearanges it!"

The man scowled and moved to strike her fast, and Cindy crashed back into Sketchy on the floor.

"Hey! What in the hell do you think you're doing!" Sketchy cried out and tried to sit up a little, and felt his head swim. He shook it slightly to refocus and reached over to touch Cindy's shoulder. "Are you okay, Cin?" She looked back at him, and then turned to crawl next to him. She touched her lip, and came away with blood.  
"Yeah, sure thing Suga. You know OC's always ok. Fool just surprised me is all."

"Trannie loving freaks!" the man growled "You're gonna put this on now or things are gonna get real ugly, real fast." There was a menacing gleam to the man's eyes that instantly put Sketchy on edge. He glanced down at what the man was holding in one hand and gulped. Sketchy really started wishing Alec was here. Because he was 90 sure that was a bomb in his hand.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

_Meanwhile…_

Max was pacing the floor furiously, and it was damned distracting. Alec was doing his best to avoid her and watch as Dix pulled up semantics and city plans. They had a lead about the potential abductors who'd been snatching transgenic supporters. The battle might be over in the sense of a siege, but now they were in for the long fight to win the war. Politics. Max stomped by him again and Alec could feel irritation lick at him. She'd been highly agitated ever since he arrived at the meeting. Basically since she'd seen Logan. Man he was sick of this shit. He tried to stay out of her way, but she kept unconsciously making her way towards him. Alec let out an aggravated sigh.

"Max!" he snapped turning around to look at her "Would you quit it already? You're making me dizzy!" She growled at him and paused in her pacing.

"Shut it pretty boy!" She popped him on the back of the head but she stilled next to him and quit pacing like a caged lion. He looked closer at her and felt his frustration shift. There was something _charged_ about her.

"Max is your spider-sense tingling again?" he asked. She looked a little startled, as if she hadn't realized she'd been acting odd.

"Dunno," she grunted after a moment. "No visions or anything, just I-I'm antsy." Alec snorted in response.

"No kidding." She frowned but ignored him to continue.

"I think something's wrong, or maybe something bad is gonna happen." Alec cocked his head towards her.  
"Like what?"

"I don't know!" Max exploded out "All I know is whatever it is, I don't want it to happen." She suddenly deflated. "I'm tired Alec." He blinked a little, a tad surprised at her behavior. Alec felt a shiver run down his spine. Stepping closer to her he slowly slid an arm around her shoulders; giving her time to pull away and when she didn't he effectively tucked her into his side. When she allowed it he realized that Max was worried, maybe a little scared.

She wasn't rejecting the comfort he offered. This was surprising because Alec could count on one hand the number of times she'd allowed him to comfort her with a simple touch. Physical and verbal abuse not withstanding. Sparring yes, the little ½ arm hugs-not so much. He didn't push his luck was a smart-ass comment and was rewarded with Max turning in a little more, resting her head on his shoulder. He was struck by how well they fit together.

An explosion of sound had them tearing apart and spinning towards the noise, defensive posture in place. Alec relaxed only slightly when two X-7's charged in and stopped in front of Alec and saluted in sync. A few months ago Alec had come across the three remaining X-7's living in near squalor in the woods. Manticore and White's familiars had finished off the remaining hive.

They took a liking to Alec, as he quickly figured out that they couldn't communicate on the same level as the other X-series and reverted to Manticore hand gestures. They followed Alec back to T.C. and he'd put them on boarder patrol, as they seemed to like it. Over time they had developed a more complex, and clear method of communicating with Alec. They didn't like to socialize with many besides him and a handful of other transhumans. Alec attributed this to more animal in their cocktail, and the difficulty of communication.

Returning their salute half-heartedly he began using his gestures to communicate with them, although he spoke aloud as well, for the benefit of the whole room.

"Report."

**Sir. We two were on sentry duty at south gate. Then Larry reported a disturbance from the East entryway where he was stationed. He indicated to his partner that they should remain if the incident proved to be a trap. He alerted us and we called for replacements**.

"What disturbance?!" Max interrupted. Alec ignored her.

**Upon his investigation he discovered friendly ordinaries were being set upon by a gang of masked men just outside of transgenic territory. Assessing the situation he deemed direct interference posed too great a risk for casualties and instead pursed and tracked the subjects to their current location. It is within our transmitting range, sir. **

The air was still for a moment before movement exploded on all sides. Alec addressed Curly, standing on the right.

"Give Larry's heading to Dix; he'll pull it up on satellite." He turned to Max, who seemed stunned into silence. "Max, we'll get them back."

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Things were bad. Just as bad as they'd ever been during the battles that had rocked T.C. almost weekly. Sketchy was sweating bullets as he watched one of the bad guys finish strapping some homemade crack-ass bomb to his chest. There was a wire connecting him to OC. He'd tried to play the hero and offered to wear it instead so she wouldn't have to, but all it got was the bomb being split and connected to the both of them. If they tried to run-boom. If they moved too far away from each other-boom. If they moved too much-boom. Basically it seemed to be all too easy to make the whole building go boom.

Sketchy was kind of glad he wasn't drunk, although he could really use a drink. If he'd had more than a couple of beers tonight they probably would've gone boom-boom already. Being heroic sucked. OC looked a little pale, and Logan was still trussed up, unconscious and bomb free. Lucky bastard.

He was only half-tuned into the conversation around him. Concentrating on not blowing up could do that to you. But from what he could make out it looked like they'd been grabbed by the group that'd been attacking political allies of the transgenic cause. Seems like they'd decided to go after the everyman to make an example of them, inspire fear and terror. And mister rough hands himself seemed to be done fiddling with the video camera, as he looked over at the pair of them. Sketchy gulped. Showtime.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Of course everything would go to shit. That was just Max's life. She would think things were finally starting to turn around and then BANG! It got all messed up again. Finally made a home in Seattle, got captured and nearly killed by Manticore. Found family members, they sacrificed themselves for you, went crazy or disappeared. Found supposed true love with Logan, then virus and the painful truth. He wasn't as perfect as she thought he was. The daily battles of war, seemingly over. Then anti-transgenic terrorists pop up and snatch her best friends.

There was really only one person left besides OC she felt she could still count on. And of course, fate would decide Max had had enough of "happiness" and try and take him away.

"NO!"

Max felt the scream rip from her as she watched the burly man lift his arm and fire his gun at an unawares Alec. The retrieval mission had gone sideways, as usual. The men would not be bargained with. It evolved into a firefight and Alec had rushed to rescue OC and Sketchy who were being led up to the second level of the sea-side warehouse. He'd gotten her girl out of what looked like a bomb, but ran into some difficulty with Sketch's.

Definably a bomb, with the way he was cautiously handling it. He eased away from their friends and held his arm out to throw the make-shift bomb out of the window and out into the harbor below. Things looked to be relatively in the clear, when the man fired at Alec, probably aiming for the bomb. Not everyone was a marksman and it missed, going wide and struck Alec in the shoulder.

He went over and through the window, taking the bomb with him.

"Alec!"

Max raced for the stairs, heedless of the remaining battle. She was halfway up when a resounding blast shook the side of the building and Max screamed again.

"No! Alec!" She blurred to the top, and looked out where he went over, expecting him to be hanging on the ledge. Her indestructible smart-alec. Nothing but debris and flame. The bomb must've hit the deck below and exploded, destroying the deck, flinging debris and catching fire. Alec was no where to be seen. She swung her leg over the ledge, prepared to jump over and find him. A hand on her arm stopped her. The trio of X-7's that Alec had jokingly named Larry, Curley and Moe were standing beside her and shook their heads no in unison.

"I can't just leave him!" She cried out desperately. They shook their heads no again and gestured in response.

**Not you sir. Us**_. _

They leapt over and out the windows, plunging into the water below. Max turned and flew down the stairs she'd just climbed, racing for the exit to lead out back. She could hear OC and Sketchy calling her name, but she ignored them. As she rushed past her people, she could see that the men had finally been subdued and they turned to watch her flight outside.

"Little fella?" Joshua called out to her.

When she reached the emergency exit, she kicked the door off its hinges. There was an eerie silence outside, disturbed only by the crackling of the fire at the west end of the dock. The surface of the water was relatively clear, and Max was just preparing to kick off her boots and dive in herself when she saw a dark head breach the surface some distance out. It was one of the X-7's, and he was dragging Alec's limp body towards shore.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Joshua reached down and lifted Alec out of the water, from the waiting arms of the X-7's. Mole was on the other end of the dock, barking orders to get the fire put out and anxiously glancing towards them. Joshua gently lay Alec down on the wood surface of the dock and the pale moonlight showed his skin a pale alabaster.

"Get back! Give him air!" Max cried out and fell to her knees beside him. Pressing two fingers to his jugular she was relieved to find his pulse. Soft, thready, barely moving. But it was there. She swept her dark hair back behind her shoulder and positioned her ear over his lips to listen, feel for breath.

"He's not breathing!" She called out and tilted his head to the side; swept his mouth with her fingers and a little water trickled out. Gently she pressed on his stomach and more water poured out. She checked his breath again. Nothing. Max could feel panic clawing at her, but the solider in her tramped down on it. Panic wouldn't solve anything. X-5's could hold their breath for a long time, and she could only hope that his body had automatically shut down his air passageway to prevent more water from entering his lungs.

Tilting his chin back, she clamped her fingers over his nose, took a breath and pressed her lips to his, and gently blew air into his lungs. Pause. Breathe. Pause. Breathe. Wait, Listen for breath. Breathe. Pause. Breathe. Pause. Breathe. Check for breath. Max wasn't sure how long she was pressing her lips to Alec's giving him life sustaining air, but one moment she was caught up in the rhythm of her movements, and the next Alec was spitting up water and turning onto his side gasping for air.

Max could feel relief rush through her in a giddy head rush. She collapsed back onto her ass and felt her limbs start to shake with adrenalin. Alec continued to cough and sputter and it was the sweetest sound she'd ever heard. Trembling, Max reached over to a still gasping Alec and hauled him to a sitting position by his shoulders. He coughed deeply and leaned forward to rest his head in the curve of her neck and shoulder. She slipped her right hand through his soft light brown hair to grip the back of his neck, pressing him closer, fingers covering his barcode.

Max could feel the cool rush of air as he gasped out on her collarbone_. 'I almost lost you.' _ The thought raced through her mind and Max squeezed her eyes shut while her heart clenched painfully. This was followed quickly by a surge of anger. She pushed him back to arm's length-brown eyes sparking with fury- meeting his dimmed hazel-green eyes. His freckles stood out in stark relief across the bridge of his nose making him seem young and vulnerable.

"You IDIOT! What in the hell do you think you're doing scaring me half to death!"

Alec was still panting slightly, but he tried to sit up a little and grin at her. Winced instead when he realized that he probably had bruised ribs to match his gunshot wound.

"Sorry Max…but the sight…of you kick'n…Joe a-hole's butt…in leather pants just left me…breathless." Max felt her vision haze out. _He was seriously making a joke right now? Ass._ "Good of you to…borrow me some." And there was a twitch to his lips. _That's it. He's gonna get it now. _

"I'll just take it back then you ungrateful jerk!" Max tearfully bellowed before she yanked him closer to mash her lips to his again- literally stealing his breath.

To say the rest of the dock was stunned would be an understatement. But it was nothing compared to what happened next.

A full minute and half later, Max finally pulled her lips away from his, Alec heaving air desperately into his lungs.

"Why do you always have to be such an ass!? I love you, and you almost drown then act like it's no big deal! God I hate you right now!" She pushed herself away from him and started stomping back into the building.

"Men." OC tsked at him. "Suga, when you gonna learn?" She turned to follow Max, but turned around to see Alec struggling to his feet. "Thanks for gett'n a girl loose though." Alec struggled after the retreating women, right hand clutching his left arm tight to support his sore ribs, and keep his injured shoulder from moving too much.

"Max!…Wait! I'm sorry…Max? Son…of…a…bitch." He could be heard grumbling and panting through the door, flanked by the X-7's "Give me a…chance to say I…love you back?… No!…Have to huff…and make…dramatic exit…"

Joshua looked over at Mole, whose cigar seemed to have dropped out of his mouth somewhere in the last 5 minutes.

"Little fella mad?"

"Oh yeah." Sketchy said. He looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Logan and Mole. "I hate to say I told you so, but well. Told ya." He rubbed at his eyes. "Guess that makes me winner, huh?" When nobody answered him he blinked tiredly at Joshua who looked even more confused. "Too bad I'm not in the mood to celebrate my victory. Will you remind me Josh? In the morning, when I can possibly care?"

_End._

_Post Author's Note: As you can see, I'm found of notes. I hope this made sense with the flashbacks. First two, were the same incident which led to our loveable boys and their bonding. Third & Fourth would be the fallout after Max discovers that Logan lied to her about her brother, Seth. I thought it would be a good way to allude to Alec's love for Max, and that he'd resigned himself to the fact she would always love Logan. Ooo, the angst! Now, I kind of sped up the timeline of when the bet was made, and to when we see who the winner is. Originally this was meant to be a funny-ha-ha only with Mole and Logan betting on the outcome of a Max/Alec fight over a period of time. But then, I thought why not let Sketchy get a little credit? He's always getting smacked around, and he has a unique perspective, much like OC. My fic once again, evolved into a life of its own. It was getting WAY too long, so I forced myself to pull back a little. Dear Lord. Either way I hope you enjoyed!_


	4. V

Vacation

**Vacation**

_Wow. Thanks to everyone who's added my story and/or reviewed! I Luurrvve You Very, Very Much. I've been reading Georgia, if you can't tell…This one has some Alec POV, although Max gets her two cents at the end. He might sound a little bitter, but you'll figure out why. grin It's M/A love, no worries. I disclaim as I own literally nothing but, oh if only I had a legal claim to Jensen. I did borrow a term nicky0 used in her current fic "heart like a hand grenade". "Flex'n & Sex'n" to be exact. Loved it, and Thanks for letting me use it! _

Some things in life are just fact. They might masquerade themselves as being an opinion, but really they're stone cold truths. He could think of a few examples…Max for instance.

Max is bitchy. So it's not like he's lying when he tells her this. Alec scrubbed harder, trying to get the remaining smelly gunk out of his hair, shivering a little in the quickly cooling water. Hot water was very short lived with a couple hundred transgenics looking for their fair share, and it's adding to his irritation. Alec frowned, why was he so aggravated again?

Oh Yeah. Max. She's bitchy. Just because the rest of the world thinks they have to sooth her social appropriateness (_Logan_), or sugarcoat who she really is, (_Original Cindy_) doesn't mean Alec does. He refuses to bow down before the alter of the image she has of herself as a benevolent do-gooder. I mean sure, he takes her bitching better than anyone else on the planet, but that doesn't mean Alec is a pansy who doesn't call them as he sees them.

Simply put Max is a bitch. No use in being offended. When he tells her as much she usually starts muttering about how she should've named him "Dick". Ha! He'd just tell everybody there's another reason she calls him _Dick_, with a nice perverted leering grin to leave no room for misinterpretation.

It shuts her up pretty quickly, even if his head rings a little from her smack round his head. So really, Alec puts up with a lot from her. Especially now that she's near apocalyptic over Logan's new girl he's got helping him with Eyes Only. He palmed another handful of the strawberry scented shampoo into his hair. He wrinkled his nose in slight irritation.

Frick'n Logan's lead on some hygienic supplies turned out to be a bunch of fruity concoctions that got the job done, but left a man smelling a little more girly than you'd like. So far he'd managed to avoid needing any of it, but he'd need the whole frick'n bottle at this point to get this shit out of his hair. Stupid Max. Stupid Logan. Stupid fruity shampoo. Stupid Eye's Only missions with foxy Sandy.

Sandy…now Sandy was a pleasant enough of a thought. A tough, lady-like red-head who looked **almost** as good as Max in a catsuit. Probably why Max didn't like working with her, and always made him tag-along for the multi-person jobs.

Alec could feel a little lick of glee at the thought of Logan now being seen as a bit of a playa. He knew there was a real guy under that entire self-righteous pretense, even if it's still a pretty tame one. Seriously, how many girls could he be "not-like-that" with?

Alec's sure that Asha was just as surprised by Logie-bear's new main squeeze/not like that girlfriend as Max, although as he helpfully pointed out to both women, they really shouldn't have been.

Max and Alec are supposed to be "flexing and sexing" and Asha never struck while the iron was hot, so to speak. The man has every right to move on. That gang-up beat down left his ass smarting, ( _don't ask _) for a couple of hours – so really Alec was justified with taking a little mental vacation from his life, and Max in particular.

Pouring the last of the shampoo over his head, Alec scrubbed vigorously at his scalp and used the leftover foamy soap to do a last minute body rinse. Alec's R&R time was severely limited right now, as he was forbidden by her majesty from leaving T.C. for unauthorized reasons. She was just being a no-fun harpy.

Not that Alec's ban had anything to do with him getting shot in the ass last time he went to meet Sketchy at the Blowfish Tavern. Nope. Nothing. Max was just overreacting to a couple of drug dealers, and trying to ruin his fun, by being bitchy anti-fun Max.

So to escape Max a little bit, Alec had been using his fertile imagination to go on little mental vacations, of the beach lounging with honeys variety. That he happened to start going on these "vacations" whenever Max starting bitching about Logan and Sandy meant nothing to Alec. And certainly there was nothing to read into the way any of their other usual arguments had no trouble keeping his attention. Nope. Nothing unusual at all.

This was working pretty well for Alec, if he did say so himself. Well, for the most part that is. Sure there were a couple of times he hadn't been careful and Max had caught him, usually when he started groaning – today being a prime example- but for the most part it had been working for him. Key word there was _had. _

Then, Max started popping up in his little mental vacations. He tried switching locations, (Tahiti, Hawaii, Jamaica) occupations, (bartender ala some pre-pulse movie, cabana boy, surfer/spy, and even a hotel manager) and nothing worked. Turns out he just couldn't tune her out anymore. Dream Max would show up, knock whatever girl happened to be there over on her ass, and start lecturing. Admittedly she fit the locale, looking _hot_. A socialite in a skimpy, shimmery dress with legs for miles, or a Gidget style beach bunny complete with attention grabbing cleavage. His favorite had been the hotel maid-French of course-with a flouncy short skirt and off the shoulder top.

Alec groaned again at the thought and abruptly shut off the cold water that wasn't doing much of anything to calm him down. Wrenching his flimsy shower curtain to the side he grabbed his blue towel and wrapped it around his hips. He didn't bother rubbing himself down, to uncertain of where that'd lead after those images he'd been having of Max just moments earlier.

Why him? He just couldn't seem to leave her behind. The disturbing thing was it was _his_ mind. He should be able to do it. It kind of scared Alec that he didn't seem to want to. He wiped the film moisture away from the small, cracked mirror that hung slightly sideways over his sink and stared at his reflection. _Why Me?_ A noise in his living room started his attention to his door. He wrenched it open and was a little startled to see **her **standing there in all her bitchy glory.

"Max? What are you doing here?"

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Good question and Max had the answer. Alec is a pain in her ass. Max had charged in here, full of righteous anger about this morning's fiasco that was completely his fault, fully intending to rip him a new one. Max got distracted from looking for him, by his sudden appearance from his bathroom _dripping_ wet, wearing nothing but a frown and that damned blue towel.

And okay Max is a hot blooded female for all her pretense as a stone-cold bitch and Alec is, physically at least an attractive alpha male.

Max took the time to appreciate. God damn but Alec was practically obscene with his golden skin, dripping slightly curled hair, befuddled expression, and ripped abs being chiseled out by water practically racing to caress over his skin. He must have literally just stepped out of the shower. A quick glance to his lean hips verified that yes, he was still wearing a towel, but no it wasn't being held on by much, gravity deciding to tag team with the rest of the female population and bring their mortal enemy down.

"Max?" She was startled back to sudden awareness that she was ogling _ALEC_ of all people. She covered it back up with her not so far away anger.

"You!" she shouted at him and poked an angry finger. _Oh Yeah. Those muscles were real._

"Me?" he had a bemused and annoyed look on his face, looking around the bare apartment. Kitchen, bedroom, living space all as one, only his tiny bathroom offered any separation from her prying eyes. _He, He didn't have a girl here did he? Surely not when he smelled that badly? Still, if anyone could do it, Alec could._ Anger resurged. Nothing to do with the thought of another girl here. Nope.

"Yes you!" she said firmly keeping her eyes on his face. Above the collarbone because really, he was too distracting right now-prancing around here half-naked in front of the window where anyone could see, trying to weasel his out of trouble. He knew, clearly that she would seek him out as soon as he left! He was using his diabolical wiles to distract her!

"Stop trying to confuse and distract me by asking stupid questions!" she growled at his ever growing confused expression "You wanna explain what happened back there!"

"You pushed me into the back of a garbage truck!" water flicked when he snapped his head in exasperation.

"You were the one who wasn't paying attention!" she shot back at him.

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Oh really? Well I don't count paying attention as staring at Sandy's ass!" his heaving chest was really quite distracting.

"Wait, what?" he stepped past her towards his bed with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"You heard me! You were supposed to be-" Alec interrupted her.

"I wasn't staring at Sandy."

"Yes. You were!"

"Uh, no." he paused boring his eyes into her "I wasn't. I was thinking." Max gave a disbelieving snort.

"As if! Are you going to deny staring at Mabs's legs last week too!?" Okay, deep breath she was getting a little shrieky.

"Nope. I was totally eye'n them. Mabs looks like she could-"

"Stop! I don't wanna hear it!" she had to turn away from him. She felt the wet spray of water fleck over her. She spun back to find he had adjusted, aka _tightened_ the towel around his hips (_damn_) and shook his head, spraying water around. "Hey!"

His temper seemed to have quieted down a little, and was he…amused? He brushed past her…was that strawberries she smelled?

"Seriously Max," he huffed out "What is your problem? Even if I HAD been staring at Sandy, which I wasn't- what did it matter? You weren't even talking really. You were muttering, and grumbling about-Surprise! Sandy."

Max was stunned. Well, he was kind of right. But still, she could've been saying something important and her supposed "boyfriend" (she used the term loosely) was scamming on some other chick?

"Yeah, okay but I could've been talking about important stuff," she started

"But you weren't Max. Logan's moved on. So get over it already." Her mouth dropped open in response to his sudden exclamation. _She wasn't, that isn't even, soo not like that!_ "By the way, you owe me new pair of pants. Unless you want to try and get the smell of old tuna fish and shoes out of them. It's sick." Alec looked towards the kitchen area where his favorite pants were now discarded and double bagged in plastic and set to re-join the garbage community.

"I don't owe you crap!" Max said taking another menacing step towards him. Alec glowered in response and responded to her in a dead serious voice.

"Yea you do. It's the least you can do." When she made to protest, Alec's temper snapped. He glared and started ticking his fingers on his hand. "First, you pull me into this whole fandango by telling Logan we're "like that" when we're not, Secondly," he turned and started stomping to his bed where a fresh set of clothes lay.

"-You don't even bother to _tell _me about it, much less ask my frigg'n permission! Thirdly I go along with it, even though it makes me seem like a girl-stealing jerk of a bad guy! Oh and then Surprise! When Logan finally does move on, which was your supposed point in this whole ruse, you flip out!" He threw his hands in the air before dropping them down to his hips and gripped the edges of his towel.

Max felt her jaw drop open when in the midst of the giant rant he was obviously building to; he just…dropped the towel. In front of her. Granted his back was to her…but still…_oh god. He really did have a great ass._ Alec, oblivious to her eyes goggling out of her head, continued.

"No, even better, you are pissed about it!" he slipped his legs into a pair of his khaki cargo pants and wait, _no underwear?!_ Max visibly gulped. Not that Alec noticed, as he was still in mid-rant. "Are you mad at the right person, namely yourself or god, I'd even take Logan at this point, but NO! It's Sandy, who is perfectly nice by the way, and me!" Max bristled at Sandy's name and focused more fully on their argument. At least he was wearing pants. Working on his shirt too. He slipped the fabric over his head and sat down in a huff to put on his socks and boots. His furious gaze was still pinned to her. Max could feel a little guilt slipping in.

"I get to listen to you whine, bitch and complain 24/7 about a situation YOU created because you couldn't "man-up" and now you don't want to deal with the consequences. Perfect Max never does anything wrong! So excuse me if I have to take a little mental vacation from you and your daddy issues! But oh no, ruin that for me too! Pitch me into a pile of stinky ass garbage and point the finger of blame some more!" he took a deep breath and stood up, anger pulling the corners of his lips down.

"So yes Max, I think you owe me a lot-least of all a fuck'n pair of pants!" He gave her a slightly disgusted look and stormed past her leaving her flabbergasted in the middle of his apartment.

Well then. That was interesting. Max sat down in a slight daze on the end of Alec bed and flopped back. Okay. She was being a first class jerk. Why did she push him in the dumpster? Yeah, she was annoyed at Sandy always being around and flirting with practically everyone, but she wasn't that obvious was she?

She felt a little small when Alec's words came back to her "_So excuse me if I have to take a little mental vacation from you and your daddy issues!" _ He felt like he had to escape her? Alec had looked so content, happy even that when she saw his expression and that he wasn't really paying her any attention, (which she had to admit was rare) she'd automatically assumed he'd been scoping out prissy little Sandy.

He'd only been facing her general direction though; she didn't actually see him ogle her. Max had just sort of, snapped. Sandy already had Logan, why was she always trying to entice Alec? Asking about him, if he was coming along on the E.O. mission, how he was so funny and charming, etc. God she was annoying.

Alec had a point though. It wasn't really his fault that Sandy was around. Max heaved a sigh out, stood up and made her way towards his door. Guess she had some shopping to do. Time to eat crow, so to speak. Max let a grimace play over her features. Ugh.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Alec returned several hours later a much calmer and frankly a little sheepish transgenic. He couldn't believe that he'd actually told off Max. And while some of it she deserved, he knew he'd been a little harsh. It was just that damn; those were his favorite pair of pants! If he were the blushing type though, he would be a little embarrassed when he thought about stripping in front of her.

He'd just been so mad, and he needed to get away from her, and well there really wasn't anywhere else to go. He'd disrobed in front of plenty of people between Manticore and other, more pleasurable pursuits so it wasn't really that big of a deal. Well, Max was pretty peeved too, so maybe she didn't even really notice. After all she'd claimed to find him repulsive and his style unbecoming to her. Like wine and stuffy shirts were. Right.

Speaking of clothing, there on his bed was a pair of pants remarkably like the ones that had been pitched into the bin. Alec walked to the end of his bed to find the perfect size pants, and to his surprise two t-shirts, a pack of socks and…he paused for a moment before a grin slid over his face. A pair of boxers. Yep. Max had noticed his lack of underwear, even in the midst of their fight. Wonder how she would feel if she knew it was more a choice, than a lack of necessities?

Alec's grin widened, and he toed off his boots before collapsing on his bed and grabbing the remote to flick on his tiny, barely functioning TV. Alec had a good idea of where he'd like to go on vacation next. And this time he thought he had a good idea of how to keep Max occupied.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Max was standing back outside of Alec's door, fiddling with the button on the bottom of her denim jacket. She wasn't due in Command for a half-hour but if she didn't talk to him now, she might very well loose her nerve. Just before she was about to barge on in like usual, she heard Alec call out to her;

"Max, would you stop hanging around like a stalker and just come in already?" he sounded amused. Max felt a scowl start to make an appearance. God, he was annoying. She pushed the door open and found him lounging languidly on his stomach in bed, hands tucked underneath his pillow, eyes glued to some crappy program on the TV.

"I wasn't hanging around." She muttered and he glanced over at her, eyes clearly telling her that he didn't believe her story one iota. Max walked over to him and stared down at him, his eyes still on the TV. The silence was making her uncomfortable. Usually he blathered on and filled it, but she guessed he was waiting for her. Problem was she didn't know how to start it.

"Was there something you wanted Max?" he still didn't look at her, but it seemed to be more out of studied disinterest, rather than any actual remaining malice. Max frowned and bit her lip. Maybe if she just blurted it out, it would be over and done with faster.

"I-I wanted, um, that is to say-" Crap. She couldn't do it. He sat up and scooted back to the head of the bed and tucked the pillow behind his back. At least he was looking at her now. "I'm sorry okay! There I said it, are you happy?" Alec smirked at her. God he was so irritating, and a jerk. "I told Logan the truth." Alec's smirk slid off his face and he looked at her, more serious now.

"Huh."

Huh? That's all he had to say? God but males were infuriating.

"Why'd you do that?" his voice was low but it was like he'd said it right in her ear. Max shifted uncomfortably and found herself moving closer to the head of his bed.

"Cause you were right." He tilted his head at her to continue. "About me being mad at the wrong person. But you were wrong about _why_ I was mad. It's not because she's with Logan. She just," Max floundered for the words which seemed to stick in her throat. "I mean I-" Alec leaned towards her, resting his forearms on his knees. Max heaved a sigh out in a whoosh of air and glared at the ceiling.

"Sandy seems to have it all figured out. Balance between life and work, she's a good cat burglar for an ordinary and she doesn't have any trouble catching people's eyes. They like her. And I just well, she makes me feel-" Max never had to finish saying that Sandy made her feel inadequate in so many ways. Her ability to make a work and love relationship work, to entice men knowingly, and with purpose. Alec seemed to suddenly understand what she was so inelegantly trying to say. That's something she liked about Alec. A lot. So when he interrupted her self-confession she was grateful, and a little surprised.

Alec reached over, grabbed her elbows and hauled her into his lap and promptly kissed her with an intensity that made her knees weak. It was hot, passionate and very much what Max never knew she needed until Alec gave it to her. She delved her fingers into his hair and changed the angle of the kiss, bringing fusing their lips together. Alec's hands slid down her back to her hips and dragged her closer. Mouths open and tongues tangled Max lost all track of time. To soon he'd gripped her elbows again and pushed her back. His eyes were half-lidded and his voice smoky.

"Sorry Max, but you're due in command in about oh, three minutes." Max blinked foolishly at him. "Thanks for giving me something else for you to do on vacation." Okay, now she was really confused and he must've seen it on her face. He tweaked her nose with his right hand and smiled at her. "You should come over after your shift, watch a movie with me. But right now, you've got to go." Then he pushed her off the bed! He leaned over her and smiled.

"Kick my ass later Maxie, but you know how much Mole bitches when you're late. I almost expect him to start bipp'n. Kind of makes you miss Normal, huh?" Max stood up in a huff and stomped to the door. She turned around and glared at him casually leaning back, and caught him staring at her ass.

"You are so dead when I get back pretty boy." And instead of cowering in fear at the wrath in her voice, he seemed to perk up.

"Excellent. I'll see you in a couple hours then." Alec leaned back against his pillow while Max whirled through the door and slammed it behind her.

Frick'n Jerk. Getting her all hot and bothered then sending her to work of all places! Max was all flushed, and a little tingly. She really, really needed a vacation. Preferably somewhere cold. She hurried a little bit, because really Mole really did drone on and on if she was the tiniest bit late. She was kind of hungry though. Did she have time to pop into Mess for a snack? Pry not. Strangely enough she was kind of craving strawberries. Weird.

_I was writing this one poolside when I should've been working on "Wager" but sitting by the pool with a very creepy old man hanging around there put me in the mind of fantasizing about having hot Jensen poolside instead, so I thought why not? So review if you like, my favorite is when you tell me what your favorite line/passage was. It's so helpful. I'm working on the next part, to be updated soon!_


	5. U

Umbrella

**Umbrella**

_Authors Note: So…I had another Idea for this One…but I ended up being inspired to write this. Perchance I'll get it out some other way. Again, I disclaim. Dark Angel is not my brain child. And oh if only Jensen were mine. I'm going to type this up and go watch my Season 3 Supernatural you can't tell, but I'm seriously drooling... I'm assuming that's what everyone's doing today…_

"I really, really shouldn't be doing this."

Story of her life. Max eased her left foot further along the slick ledge, keeping her right foot firmly planted. It was a long way down. Not enough to kill her if she did slip and fall, but it would certainly hurt like hell. Things weren't helped by the fact that it was pouring rain. Max's hair was sluiced to her head, ponytail hanging heavily down her back.

The things Max did for the common good of humanity and all that. Huffing out a deep sigh she swung around the corner of the old brick building moving for the far east corner. She was dressed entirely in all black, and she melded into the shadows, effectively hidden.

Logan was currently trying to get a read on the new members of the Russian Mafia that were edging in on Seattle's territory. However he was having a little trouble with his contacts coming through with some reliable information. So Max figured she might be able to get a lead on who was new in town, by checking a source of her own. Logan had been intrigued and his blue eyes had sparked behind his glasses.

"You have a source that knows the Russian mob?" he seemed a little skeptical. What like she couldn't have shadier friends?

"Yeah, sure. Or at least I know they'll lead me to something useful." She shrugged and crossed her arms a little uneasily across her chest. Logan tilted his head a little to the side.

"Who would this be?"

"A…friend." Max answered uneasily. "I'll let you know if anything pans out." She turned and headed for the back door leading out of Sandman's old house. There was no need to let Logan in that the said informant was actually Alec. Logan liked Alec well enough, but well…he might have a problem with a couple of Alec's…contacts. Max wasn't exactly as composed of the same high, ethical standards that Logan was. Alec's rather esteemed contacts had proven useful to keep T.C. running in food and supplies lately.

Of course she couldn't just ASK Alec. Guy would probably tip off his contacts that the Great Eyes Only was sniffing around, and her lead would be useless. Besides, she'd heard him muttering in what sounded like Russian on the payphone in Jam Pony earlier in the week. He was definitely up to something. Max was all set to do a little recon to figure out his pattern, and hopefully be able to follow him towards a deal.

Finally on point, she eased down on her haunches in the slight well outside of the boarded up window. She was in perfect position, allowing her a great strategic vantage point for concealment and observation. However the little enclave did not keep the rain out entirely. A small board overhead kept out most of the downpour, but she was being steadily leaked on. Ugh, the cat in Max hated the rain. But it worked as an advantage to her, decreasing her visibility from observation from the street below.

A light flicked on in the distance, and Max's heart stuttered and began a furious pace.

"Really, really shouldn't be doing this." She muttered and cocked her head to the side watching as Alec walked into his kitchen. He threw his Jam Pony bag down onto his kitchen counter and started rummaging around in his fridge.

Max had made sure that she'd left Crash before Alec, giving her time to get into place. He immerged from his fridge with an apple clenched in his teeth, a carton of milk in his right hand and grabbed a jar of peanut butter and a half eaten bar of chocolate from the cupboard. Juggling the items he ambled over to his couch, and plopped down laying out his snacks on the coffee table. He dug in the sofa cushions and pulled a battered remote out and flipped on his TV.

Max peered around the dimly lit room. What, no girls? She had resigned herself to the fact she might have to watch him _seduce_ a few ladies if his track record was to believed. Max breathed a sigh of relief that he was alone. She wasn't exactly sure she could handle that. Alec leaned over the table and started slathering the bite mark out of the apple with peanut butter, he took another bite, swallowed it in a gulp and chugged some milk straight from the carton. Ugh. Max reminded herself to never drink milk at his apartment and to keep an eye on the container at hers.

His phone rang, and Alec sat up and pulled his phone out of his pocket, flipped it open and answered. His face lit up and eased back into cushions and started speaking rapid fire in a language Max couldn't place. He would spend the next 20 minutes laughing and chowing down on peanut butter. A drop of rain ran down from the top of her head and down the back of her neck chilling her. Max huffed out another sigh. It was going to be a long night.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Max slammed her locker shut, and started a little bit when she turned around to see Cindy standing right behind her.

"Jeez, Cindy!" O.C. just arched an eyebrow at her haughtily.

"Boo, you all strung up. Where were you last night?"

"No where." Max quickly answered, eyes darting around to check the area, making sure Alec wasn't around.

"Uh huh. You left Crash early _again_, and then you came home this morning looking like something the cat dragged in. Girl, what've you been up to the last three weeks?" Cindy adjusted the strap on her bag. "You got a new squeeze?"

"What?!" Max's jaw dropped open and she looked at Cindy's disbelievingly. "Are you crazy?"

"Well, you haven't been pull'n jobs with yo' boy lately, and OC knows you ain't been moon'n over at Logan's so it leaves a girl wondering, just what you've been up to lately."

"I'm just doing some recon for a job, ok? No biggie. I just get a little wet, that's all." Max protested.

"Oh really? This sounds like a conversation I definitely don't want to miss." Alec's grin split his face in two. When OC swiveled over to glare at him, he leaned into the locker and continued. "Seriously, don't mind me. I'll just stand here quietly."

"Baby boo, the day you quiet is the day OC knows things are about flip on their axis. Girl … now where'd Max go?" OC had turned around to give her girl some room to whoop on hot boy, but she was no where to be found. She looked back at Alec, who looked innocently puzzled as well. A little too innocent. "What did you do?" Alec looked affronted.

"Me? Nothing." He stood away from the lockers and walked towards the dispatch desk. He threw Cindy a look over his shoulder, twinkle in his eye. "But I'll find out what's up with our girl either way. Count on it."

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

"So how's the recon going?" Logan leaned back in his chair to gaze at Max in the doorway. Max shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh, nothing useful yet. But its' supposed to rain again tonight, so I'll get another shot."

"Maybe you should ask Alec along, he might be able to help." Max's eyes bugged out of her head.

"No. No way." Was Max, blushing?

"Max, what's wrong?" Logan was astounded, Max looked completely spun. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Logan. I'll call you if I get anything useful, okay?" she turned and for the second time that week rushed out of his house.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Max was back in her spot, across from Alec's building and was once again soaked through to the bone. She'd quickly figured out that Alec wasn't meeting any Russian informants at his apartment, and that if she wanted his contacts she'd have to either steal his phone, or ask for his help. Max wasn't quite prepared to do either. So she was currently having a debate with herself over just what in the hell she was doing out here every night in the rain.

She felt embarrassed and perverted especially since he was running around shirtless in his low hanging sweatpants tonight. But it was raining, and she felt safe in her observation of him. Max didn't know why it was comforting to watch and observe him, but it was. But she knew that there was no way she'd be able to explain her behavior to anyone else, when she couldn't even justify it to herself. He just soothed her, when he wasn't yapping and being an ass, and this allowed her the best of both.

Her foot slipped a little when a brick came loose from her ledge and clattered to the street below her. She held her breath and turned her face back to Alec's apartment in time to see his head dart up suddenly like an alerted prey. He walked closer to the window and squinted out into the darkness, casing the street. When his eyes slid over her hiding place Max's fluttering heartbeat stopped dead cold. _Oh god. What if he saw her?_ But his gaze didn't linger and after another moment or so of casing the street, he seemed to calm and continued on his trek back to his bed. He flipped the covers back, and slid underneath, and buried his face in his pillow.

Max knew that she should leave, but couldn't quite bring herself to go quite yet. So she eased back into the corner that best protected her from the dripping rain, and settled in to watch him sleep for a little while.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

"Missy Miss! You're late again! What is it this time? Time machine? Row of ducks get in your way? Saved a kitten from a tree?" Normal barked out at her the minute she walked in. Max completely ignored him and walked over to her locker, and spun the lock. She got the biggest shock when she opened the locker to find a small, collapsible, black umbrella. _Shit._

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Max kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Alec to call her out, call her a stalker, a freak, anything. But he never did. Even when she forgot to be careful and yelled and hit him. It got to be to the point when it started raining, Max would start thinking that maybe, just maybe it wasn't Alec and she was just being paranoid. It took a month and another breakup with Logan to bring her back to his window. This time though, she brought the umbrella. It was nice. Max stayed dry, and Alec never gave any indication that he knew she was there. She still only ever came when it rained. He stayed at ease, at home with himself and after another month and a half, Max decided maybe she was being absurd, and instead of climbing up the fire escape to her window perch, she trudged up the stairs to Alec's place.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

She didn't bother knocking, because although he never gave any indication otherwise, Max had a feeling he knew she was there. The door wasn't locked, and she pushed it open and left the umbrella open just inside the door. He glances at her from his usual perch on the couch. She walked over, removing her jacket and let it puddle on the floor at the end of the couch before settling near him on the worn cushions.

"How long?" no warm up, straight to the point.

"First night you showed up. Tough to tell, you were in all black, nice tight cat suit." He turned towards her a little then, and cocked his head. "You're good Maxie…but I'm better." The slight curl of a smile at the corner of his lip wasn't arrogant and surprisingly it didn't piss Max off.

"I'm sorry. I, I don't know what's wrong with me." She whispered a little mortified at having to explain herself.

"Nothing is wrong with you Max." Oh the irony.

"Yeah, whatever Alec. I feel like a stalker." Now his smirk bloomed across his face and Max could feel a stir of irritation. But embarrassment was still winning over. "I don't know why I'm still doing it, and I didn't know what you'd say and I didn't want to deal."

"S'okay." When Max looked at him in disbelief he shrugged his wide shoulders. "You don't wanna talk about it yet. We don't have to. We can just hang."

He slid closer, Max watching him from the corner of her eye. Alec handed her the remote and slowly eased his arm behind her head on the back of the sofa. When he didn't move further, Max cautiously slid a little closer to him, leaving a hairsbreadth of space between them. His intense green-hazel eyes bored into hers.

"You can keep the umbrella." His face spread in a genuine smile and Max felt her heart stutter a little bit. "Just in case I piss you off."

_End._

_Post Author's Note. Well. That was different. I'm not doing my usual comb through, as I want to get this posted before I go nurse my sunburn. I hope you enjoyed either way. Reviews are always welcome, and thanks for reading!_


	6. T

**Touch**

_Authors Note: SO SO SO sorry for the long delay between posts. I never meant for it to be over a month!! I can only say that I've moved had craziness at work and Supernatural has ignited my muse for both Supernatural fics, but also my expansion of Xerox. Expect another update soon as your just reward for waiting. Basic Disclaimer. I Don't Own Dark Angel, not one iota. If I could take Alec home with me, I would. Max wasn't appreciating him quite enough for my likes. Also, I do not own Indiana Jones, or the allusion to a scene in the movie hereforth. It just seemed so Max and Alec. Reviews are always welcome. Much like visuals of Alec's blue towel…._

There was a moment of eerie silence as the last truck finally rumbled into the backlot of T.C. A crowd swiftly gathered around the banged up low grade military vehicle, but Max parted through the milling transgenics. Her narrowed gaze was focused, searching the occupants climbing down for a certain chatty sandy blond. He was nowhere in sight. A slight curl of fear in her belly had her turning towards Drake, the closest ranking officer piling out of the back.

"Where's Alec?" she barked out harshly, glare cutting straight to him. Drake's smile slowly dropped off his face and he looked uncomfortable. He glanced down slightly, but muttered her answer.

"Said he had to grab something, that he'd catch up…isn't he back yet?" He swiped at a smudge of blood on the side of his neck, a slight furrow attesting that they'd been dodging fire. Great. The big idiot was definitely in trouble. Even after three years out in the world, his ass still attracted trouble like nobody's business. Max unknowingly let out a growl that had a few people taking a few steps back.

"Is everyone else accounted for? Did we get the supplies?" Now that she knew he was missing, she'd best make sure everything else was secure before she headed up a rescue mission. Drake seemed relieved at her change of subject and hurried to reassure her, brown eyes filling with earnest.

"Yes madam. Alec made sure everyone, and the supplies were secure before doubling back. Dalton insisted on backing him up."

"Great. Just great. Getting everything secure but his dumb ass." Max muttered under her breath before barking out "Mole!" He appeared at her side, chomping on his ever-present cigar. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"You rang, your highness?" clear sarcasm bit at her, but Max let it roll off her back. It was just Mole's warped and twisted way of saying he cared.

"Get someone to unload the supplies. We've got to man up a quick rescue mission for Pretty-boy." To the untrained ear, she might sound callous and annoyed. But Max could feel the concern licking at her while she turned and stomped away. What if they had run into Familiars?

Alec had steadily grown on more than just her nerves. Becoming a reluctant partner, pseudo boyfriend, and later SIC and quite possibly her best friend. Besides her Boo of course. Nobody was OC. But Max had come to realize that she relied on Alec for a lot lately. As more than just a co-conspirator, a friend. Almost like family…but still different.

And Max wasn't sure if she was ready to address this yet, but the idiot had to be around for her to figure it out. She growled again. Damnit. She was so going to kick his ass when they got home.

"Max!" a voice rang out over the small courtyard outside the underground garage she was emerging from. Sharp eyes reveled Luke panting down the street from Command.

"What is it?" she asked squinting into the setting sun.

"Dix has got some footage up from Sector 13's hoverdrones." He panted to a trot next to her, falling into step. Sector 13 is where Alec and the team had been collecting supplies, Intel and some caged transgenics. Max's eyes tightened. This was not boding well for her smart-Alec.

"Anything interesting?" Luke wiped his brow clear of sweat and nodded.

"Yeah. We think we've picked up Alec's trail…but I think, well maybe that"- Max glared at him and gave him a sharp slash of her hand indicating to just get it out already. "Well he appears to be involved in a high speed car chase with the Sector police…and White."

"WHAT!?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The police hoverdrone footage was a little grainy, but Dix and Logan fiddled with wires and connections to try and bring in a clearer picture. Mole grunted and smacked the top of the TV screen and the picture flickered twice before coming in crystal clear. The newscaster was running commentary and Logan twisted the dial up on the volume control, flooding the room with her voice.

"_And as you can see the unidentified man in the gray jacket has been pulled through the side window of the truck by the 1__st__ man in the suit. My god!"_

The entire room leaned forward with bated breath while Alec rolled down the street, straight under the front of the pursing truck.

"Look! Gray has managed to hook himself on the front grill of the truck, saving himself from being crushed beneath the wheels! If you can see here, it appears that Gray's teenage companion has managed to rid himself of the first man in the suit, and the suit goes flying off as well. Not nearly as nimble as his former nemesis as he's rolled into the streets."

Max slammed her fist down on the table shaking the equipment spread out over the surface. The 2nd truck was still dragging Alec, and he looked to be losing his grip.

"Where the hell are they? Can we send a truck of our own?" she growled out.

"Mobilizing a unit now, but I have a feeling it'll be all over and done with by the time we get someone out there." Mole nodded back to the screen focusing Max's attention and hearing back to the commentary. Alec had somehow managed to climb up unto the hood, and plowed his fist straight through the glass of the windshield.

"_-Gray's smashed the windshield of the 2__nd__ truck and oh my god! He's pulled the driver out and over he goes! Oh! Gray's been shot! I repeat, it looks like he's taking fire from the passenger, and the truck is careening out of control! It's heading for the harbor!"_

Max felt full-blown panic as she watched Alec fall back, splayed over the wide hood of the truck. He was still moving, indicating it wasn't a killshot, but he was a sitting duck on that hood, with nowhere to go, especially with the vehicle out of control. She flinched as several more shots were fired and Alec scrambled to gain his feet again.

"I repeat, the truck is crashing through the guard rail! Holy Shit! Gray's taken a suicidal leap for the other truck!"

Alec, sensing there was no time to try and regain the truck's controls took a wild leap for the back of the other vehicle piloted by Dalton. It was a long jump, even for an injured Transgenic, and Max stopped breathing. He wasn't going to make it. The impact of hitting the ground at that speed wouldn't be pretty.

Then, like a miracle, Dalton slammed on the brakes, shortening the distance. Alec slammed onto the open back tailgate with his upper body and slid off again, only managing to hang on with his arm tangled in a short piece of rope.

"Oh, my god. Where the hell is our god-dammed backup!" Max roared.

"_Gray's barely hanging on I simply can't believe his luck, he's alive but he's still being dragged. The police are quickly catching up and"_- the reporter's voice cut out as suddenly the hoverdrone's image stopped transmitting.

"What just happened!?"

"I don't know! There's nothing wrong with our equipment, the image just stopped!" Dix replied looking more than a little freaked.

"Max, it was probably shot out, either by White's people, or the Police by accident. This is good, if they can get away clean, they can't be traced back to T.C." Logan calmly tried to reassure her.

"I don't care if they get traced back here! I just want them back and I want them back 5 minutes ago!" Max spun around charging for the garage again, looking to go after them again on her motorcycle herself.

"The team's in-route Max, you can't-" Logan started but Max whirled on him poking at the air around him.

"The hell if I can't Logan. You don't tell me what to do, got it!" She whirled and continued towards the exit when the radio in command squawked.

"Blue team to command, please respond, over." Dix pressed a button and responded

"Base hears you loud and clear, report."

"Mission successful, we are heading for home base passing checkpoint one. ETA 3 minutes requesting clearance to bypass one and head straight for checkpoint two to avoid pursuit, over."

"Give it to them." Max growled "I'll meet them there." She stalked out of the door several transgenics following.

"Permission granted, you're clear blue team. Over." Dix reached over and began to code the sentries at the first checkpoint to allow the truck clearance. It was then that he noticed everyone but him had cleared out of Command. Damn. He always missed all the good fights. He flicked the security camera from the south entrance to the big screen. Maybe he'd be lucky and catch some of it.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_They were still getting used to touching each other. Max had set the tone early on in their encounters, with a hint of violence from her end. Alec had admitted that he kind of liked it, sometimes. Max had been curious about him again lately, and asked him why he didn't mind her particular breed of violence._

"_Well it wasn't too different from when we were back at Manticore yeah? A little something to improve your behavior, like when we were really little…" he'd started out with a thoughtful expression on his face but trailed off when he saw the look of horror crossing her features. "Max, what is it?" He glanced around her apartment, but nothing was amiss._

"_Like Manticore?" her voice trembled a little and Alec thought back over his words._

"_Not exactly, -"_

"_But I remind you of them? Hurting you when you were bad…" the complete horror and disgust across her face startled him. He reached out to grab at her elbow when she stepped back from him, but she jerked away flinching at his touch._

"_Jesus Max, I'm not gonna hurt you," he grumbled_

"_You don't hurt __**me**__, Alec. I'm the one who hurts you. All the time." Emotion clogged her throat making her choke over her words. When Alec saw the tears misting in her dark eyes he knew he had to rid her of this stupid notion she'd gotten into her head. _

"_Max, no. Let me explain okay? It just reminded me of being younger, the family units you know when-" Max interrupted with a slash of her hand._

_"When one mistake could cost you your life? Another mistake could just as easily put you in the tank? Alec, family isn't supposed to work that way…" Max's tirade was abruptly cut off when Alec seized her upper arms and tugged her hard into his chest. The contact startled her, made her focus on Alec glaring down at her._

_His eyes had taken on more of a gold shine, a sure sign he was annoyed or angry. Max swallowed hard. If he hated her she really couldn't fault him, but it surprised her how much the thought hurt. It caused a deep, dull ache in her chest. Something of her feeling must've shown, because his eyes softened, allowing the green to crowd back in._

_"Will you just shut UP and listen to me for a minute?" Max slowly nodded. Alec sighed and his grip on her arms lessened, but kept his hands loose and open over her arms. Max flicked her eyes down, away to his chest and tried to control the panicky emotions within her. Alec ducked his head, catching her gaze._

_"Max. Do you know why we were originally placed in units?" Max felt her brow furrow in confusion and shook her head._

_"No, but what does that-"_

_"Shush." Alec hushed her, placing one hot palm over her lips. "No talking until I'm done okay?" Max glared a little, but nodded and Alec removed his hand, leaving a tingling sensation behind._

_"We were put into units young, because of our animal DNA. Most of us tend towards a pack mentality. They changed things after '09, like shortening overall time together in a single unit, but they were still doing it when you arrived on base." Max's eyes shined in confusion, and Alec could see another question forming on her pursed lips._

_"Manticore started swapping and moving unit members around, and nobody bunks together in the barracks after the age of 7." Alec's hands started unconsciously rubbing her arms, warming her through the thin fabric of her long sleeved tee._

_"Did you know that when you adopt a puppy or kitten, you should wait until its 8 weeks old, instead of the 6 everybody usually does?" Max shook her head slowly, long dark hair fluttering against his fingers. "The little tyke learns to behave better when kept with its mother and siblings. The mom starts disciplining, like if the little guy bites too hard, plays to rough-Mom biffs the kid over the head, basically teaching him to knock it off, see?" Max looks quizzically at him._

_"No."_

_"For such a supposedly smart babe, you can be pretty damn dense sometimes." Alec looked at her with slightly irritated fondness. "Good thing you've got me to explain these things." He shook his head ruefully and nodded towards the transgenics milling around outside the window, causally slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Max, you think we don't know the difference between you and Manticore?" Max's eyes shone a little in the dim light._

_"Your particular breed of violence is a form of affection, because you're trying to promote thought before we need another beat down from Mama Bear. I know the difference. A smack upside the head is nothing compared to what Manticore was capable of. You didn't remind me of THEM, but of something from my past there, okay? Do you see the difference? Are we clear Maxie?"_

_Max let his words tumble around in her head and she nodded slowly, turning her head up to look at him. His arm was still loose around her shoulders, leaving her room to pull away. But Max thought there were other things taught through touch, and so she stayed there, turning to face the window again._

_"Crystal."_

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The incident from a couple of months ago was tumbling around in Max's mind during her furious march back towards the south lot. Since then, she had been making a concentrated effort to be more cautious of her "affection" when it came to Alec. She struck him less forcefully, less often and resorted to playful shoves as his "punishment" for teasing her.

It was still sometimes a little awkward when they accidentally touched, or brushed up against each other in a non-violent, non-comforting situation. Max was still trying to figure out why. But that could wait, now that the dumbass was back, safe and relatively sound. She was gonna school him, **hard**. Mama Bear was NOT happy.

"Alec!" Max bellowed cutting through the crowd coming to welcome TC's SIC home. They were all vying for a good view of their favorite troublemaker, all looking to give him a little TLC. Oh, but Max was gonna show him some TLC of her own-her menacing thought must've shown on her face, because the crowd was parting like the Red Sea before her.

"You idiot! What in the hell did you think you were doing!" Max shouted closing within 10 feet of Alec. He was filthy, absolutely covered from head to toe in dirt, soot, gravel and grime. Blood seeped down his left arm, permanently staining the gray cargo jacket he'd been wearing. He'd either been grazed or taken a light hit in their enemies' favorite shoulder. Her scowl was thunderous.

Alec took a wincing, limping step towards her, his bruised face attempting a charm smile at her. His teeth still shone white and bright amongst the dust coating his face.

"Don't you try that lameass lifeline on me mister!" Max snarled and jabbed brutally at his uninjured shoulder pushing him back a step. "I'm not one of your bimbo's that forgets you're in trouble when you start flashing those pearly whites around!"

"Pearly, Max? Really?" his voice was a little rough and husky. Whether from shouting, or the dust or a combination of both she didn't know. "I never knew you cared! If you want, you can borrow my toothpaste, it's this brand that whitens overnight…"

"Shut up!" snarling she smacked him hard 'round the back of his head, sending dust puffing up.

"Yowch! Damn Maxie that feak'n hurt!" He ducked away and rubbed at the sore spot, grimacing and trying to limp out of striking range. _Not-nuh, buster. Not happening this time, you're staying within my reach._

"Funny. With a reaction to pain like that, I would THINK you have a brain in there somewhere." Max smacked him again for good measure.

"Shit! Ow, ow, ow!" Alec was shuffling backwards as quickly as he could. Max fisted her hands in his torn jacket, hauling him back closer to her, in her personal space. He winced in anticipation; one eye squeezed shut, the other squinting at her looking for the next smack round his head.

"So what were your daring, stupid, ½ assed heroics for this time Alec? A keg of beer? For kicks? I'll repeat myself. What. Were. You. Thinking!" Max snarled right into his face.

"Max," Logan was the only one of the quiet crowd who dared to interrupt. From the corner of her eye, Max could see money-exchanging hands. It brought forth a growl, as she turned her head slightly to look at Logan, keeping her hands tight on Alec. He would try and slip away if she didn't watch him. He was sneaky like that. "Maybe you should-"

"Stay the hell outta this Logan!" Max seethed.

"I just wanna get the answer out of him, every time he opens his mouth you smack him!" Max leveled her lethal glare at him, and he took a hasty step back. Logan didn't have the hours logged in with that glare that Alec did. Nope. He'd done his good deed of the hour, sticking his neck out for the guy. Alec was on his own.

Max turned back to Alec; satisfied that Logan had backed down. Her heated gaze blazed at Alec, and she was preparing to rip into him again. Then she noticed that he was still bleeding. Her lips pulled down. That should've stopped by now. A flat jeweled CD case appeared under her nose and waggled a bit to catch her attention.

"This is what I went back for Max." She reached out, but instead of taking the case she swatted it away. Concern, rather than anger was the dominant feeling showing on her face.

"Alec, you're still bleeding. You need to get checked out, that can wait." She started tugging him in the direction of their Med.-bay.

"Max." His voice sounded irritated, impatient even. "That's not important. Don't you want to see what it is?"

"No, whatever it is, it can wait until you've had that looked at." Alec let out a small-frustrated growl at her response. He thrust it forward at her again. She stepped back from him to glare at it hovering between them.

"_Alec_," the annoyance was back in her voice. "I don't care about that right now, let me-"

"Fine. Here." Anger of his own bloomed across his normally even features. He shoved the disk at surprised Logan who fumbled a bit to keep it from crashing to the ground.

"It's only the frigg'n notes on the damn virus that White had. The key to your damn cure." The words were sharp, biting and bitter. Max was flabbergasted. Enough so that it was a minute or two before she realized he'd stomped off, as best as he could with his limp.

Blinking slowly Max also noted he wasn't heading for Medical, but rather towards his own apartment. _Idiot! _She spun after him on her heel, hurrying to catch up.

"Where are you going! You need to go to see Doc, Alec!" She was vaguely aware of Logan's shocked face in her peripherals as she hurried after Alec.

"Whatever. I just need sleep. It's fine. I'm fine. Lemme alone." His voice was ragged, exhaustion from pulling two shifts and dodging bullets with acrobatics on trucks. He pushed himself as fast as he could with grinding pain running up his leg.

The tumble from the first tuck, then quick stop into the next one had wrenched something in his knee and it was tender, swelling. Would probably be fine in a couple of days but right now really hurt like a bitch. Hurt like his pride.

Max was being so goddamned stubborn, and while he hadn't been expecting her to leap with joy over his unexpected trip, he had been hoping for a little more. More than basically ignoring the whole thing and talking about a stupid flesh wound. Sure, it stung like a motherfucker, and he ached all over, but that wasn't the point now was it?

Alec let out a dangerous growl at the steps leading up to his T.C. apartment. They were so totally going to cramp his dramatic angry tirade. Max was closing back in on him, and it was kind of hard to manfully mount the steps when your leg was trembling and all you wanted to do was sleep because the girl you're in love with can't be bothered to be happy about the cure to her virus keeping her from her so-called love. Bracing himself, and leaning into the wall a little with his good shoulder Alec started up the stairs.

"Alec! You're being stupid! Stupider than usual!" and she was back in his space, trying to help him. He growled at her and trudged upwards, focused on the landing where his apartment was. Luckily he was on the third floor, and he was approaching the halfway mark.

An eon later, when he finally reached his door, a small scuffle broke out between Max and himself. He was trying to use his key to enter, and she was trying to help him.

"Alec, just let me…oh my god! Men are so…urgh!" a slapping mini-cat fight ensued. Smacking and tugging at the pitiful key ring. When they fell from his fingers, she swooped down and opened the door in a heartbeat. Alec glared and shoved past her, shuffling into his studio, aiming directly for his bed in the far corner.

"You need to get those wounds looked at, and you really, really need to shower." Max was practically vibrating in fury, words cold and hard as ice. He continued to ignore her, sitting down on his lumpy mattress. He eyed his boots for a moment before deciding against bending down, and swung them up onto the bed as well.

"Why are you being so damn stubborn!" Max let out a little howl and grabbed his arm, stopping him from plopping back.

"Let me go!"

"Take off your jacket! I need to look-"

"I swear to God Max, I'm gonna-yowch!" He yelped a little when in the ensuing scuffle of hands and arms, she'd managed to tug his jacket off his shoulders, pitching it over into the garbage. "Hey! I like that jacket!" She grabbed at his shirt next, trying to pull it over his head. "Goddamn it Max! I'm not a godamned baby!" He wrenched backwards, away from her.

The sound of tearing fabric filled the room, stilling their intense struggle, and quieting the verbal tirade. They were both breathing hard, pants filling the room. Alec looked down at his shirt and his eyes popped wide. Right at the seam of his shoulder, the fabric had split, and torn down towards his chest, exposing what felt like a mile of skin.

His eyes slid from his shoulder, to the exposed wound, and finally to the bloody shirt torn in her hands. Max had her fists clenched so tight in the thin gray fabric her knuckles were a bloodless white. The tension carried up her wrists, forearms and made her whole arms quiver.

Alec could feel the anger drain away, replaced by exhausted curiosity. His eyes slowly continued their journey up, pausing when he saw smudges of his own blood on her exposed collarbone. He'd gotten her a little dirty too, seeing the bits of dirt and gravel over her own black tee. Her pulse was beating a rapid staccato of worry in the base of her throat, and her breathing was still ragged.

Huh. That was interesting. She didn't normally get winded when they were fighting. What was going on? Why wasn't she with Logan? Alec's heart thudded a little harder, realizing she was with him. Alone, no Logan. He turned his gaze to her face, and his breath caught in his throat.

Max's face was wide with unchecked emotion. Her brown eyes, the ones that usually sparked in annoyance, irritation or anger were smoldering instead. The irritation was still there, that wasn't unusual. What was throwing him were the other emotions she was allowing him to see.

Concern, worry, fear, pain, hurt that he wasn't letting her take care of him, and something else that made his heart stop for a moment and pool his leftover blood lower. Her naked emotion soothed, settled, and aroused him all in one look. Alec was suddenly aching from more than the pain of his wounds. He gazed at her in wonderment.

"Sorry." She licked her lips, suddenly nervous at the flip of emotion within the room.

"S'okay. I never liked this shirt too much anyway." His voice was easy, lighter than the harsh words of a few moments ago.

"Liar." She whispered and started loosing her grip on his shirt.

"Why are you here Max? I got you the means to your cure, shouldn't you be off holding hands with Logan or something?" the disbelief and disappointment was back in his voice.

"Don't get me wrong I'm glad, but that's not important right now. _You _need medical treatment."

"I'm fine. I am!" he retorted to her disbelieving look. "I'm sore, dead tired, but nothing I won't recover from Maxie. You can relax on your Florence Nightingale of the Night act." He sent her a small smile.

"At least let me help you get this cleaned out." A little desperation crept in her voice, and Max felt her cheeks heating with embarrassment.

"Uh, Okay." Alec cleared his throat but relaxed a little, an indication for her to continue. Max finished ripping his shirt away, and while it was the most erotic thing he'd ever seen, she still managed to jostle his shoulder sharply. "Ow!" she gave him a sympathetic look, and bent to peer at the deep, but clean through wound. She prodded experimentally at the edges and Alec let out another hiss of pain followed by a vocal stream of curses. "Ow!"

"Alec, just let me-"

"Ow damnit! Be careful!"

"I am!"

"Are not!"

Max let out a growl, and glared at his petulant stare, and his pouting lips.

"Is there any part of you that isn't bleeding, dirty or hurt?!"

"Yeah." He said, pointing to a spot next to a large bruise on his elbow. "There."

Max stared for a moment. It was just so ridiculous. She'd meant it as a rhetorical question, but then he'd sassed back at her. Max felt an idea spring up in her mind…and after only a moment she gave into the wicked impulse and swooped down to plant a soft kiss on the unblemished skin. He was warm to the touch, and it left a faint tingle on her lips.

To say Alec was surprised would be an understatement. Startling Alec would've been Max being here, in his apartment at all until this point. Now they were into the valley of the strange and unbelievable. Like Aliens, fairies, and Wisconsin. He blinked stupidly at her for a moment.

But Alec was nothing, if quick on his feet so to speak. If Max wanted to play this game with him, he certainly wasn't going to complain. He'd let her lead them where she wished, and would studiously follow. Alec was desperately curious as to what she was doing, but he thought he might try and get a little more information first. He pointed to another spot on his shoulder. Surely the first one was a fluke?

"Here." Max bent her dark head again and brushed her soft lips over the spot he'd indicated. Huh.

"Max, not that I'm complaining you understand," Alec rasped out "But what, exactly are you doing?"

"Kissing it better." She stated it matter of factly, but there was a glimmer in her eyes, like she knew something he didn't. Which was true. He could feel the confusion etching itself over his face, frowning a little.

"Uh, I'm no expert on this stuff, but aren't you supposed to do that to the actual bruises?"

"Ah," She breathed, leaning closer to him. "But you look a little _too_ tender. However if I kiss next to it, it'll spread over so…Anywhere else?" Max arched an eyebrow and Alec felt his head swim a little. Max was flirting with him. He could _so_ dig that. He thunked backwards into the wall, sliding down a little to his mess of lumpy, comfy pillows.

"There." His collarbone. She dutifully planted a kiss. The warmth spread through his body again, coiling low.

"There." Next to his ear. She kissed him, and pulled back to stare in his face, crouched over him. The gleam in her eyes illuminated that elusive emotion again. She cared about him. Maybe, maybe she even felt the same way about him that he felt for her.

Alec stared into the warm, dark depths of her eyes and taught himself to hope. There was, after all a way to test his theory, his hope…

"Here." Alec pressed the tip of his finger to the corner of his mouth. Her eyes lingered over the spot for a moment, before bending her head to touch her lips to his. His vision swam, and he closed his eyes enjoying the feeling of her warm lips on his own. Alec tilted his head a little, nudging her with his nose and adjusting the angle.

With his good arm he reached up to cradle her jaw in the palm of his hand, smoothing his thumb over her pulse point. Max groaned a little and parted her lips. The kiss was warm, wet and thoroughly drugged him, chasing the physical pains away leaving only Max in his senses.

All to soon Max was pulling back from him. She stayed close to him, and an apology was on her lips…

"Alec, I need to look at your shoulder."

He smiled at her, large and warm, and her face mirrored his. Alec nodded slowly, and let his lips turn down a little in a smirk.

Max shook her head ruefully. He was an incorrigible rouge. She turned and began removing his boots for him, tugging them off and tossing them away from the bed. Task accomplished Max turned back to him, and pressed her lips to his again. Soft and pliant.

Max blinked her eyes open and realized that while she'd been removing his boots Alec had nodded off. She snorted a little, mostly in amusement and a little in irritation. She'd been hoping to collect a reward for her hard work…But the sight of him so fragile and beautiful, even filthy and half-dressed stirred her.

Max let out a deep sigh, and went to the kitchen area to retrieve the first aid kit. After she had carefully bandaged, wrapped and disinfected him, Max toed off her own boots. She settled back until her butt bumped into his hips and swung her legs up next to him.

Carefully she turned around and settled her head next to his. She was careful how she touched him, avoiding the injuries. Nestled her head into the space between his neck and shoulder and contented herself with being pressed to his side, hand over his steadily beating heart. Slowly his body heat dragged Max under as well, and she steadily ignored the beeper going off in the corner.

_AN: Well. Once again I am delighted that my story runs away with it's self. There are actually two Indy scenes I used as references in this story. (Raiders of the Lost Ark, to be specific. This is the best movie of all four.) Of course, the whole leaping from vehicles, and hanging on to the front of the truck's grill, as well as the scene where Karen starts kissing Indy's owies, only to have him fall asleep mid-kiss. I couldn't quite go the whole way with Max and Alec…but I thought that this might be a little more in character with them. So I've noticed I'm more a fluff writer. Don't get me wrong, I pay tributes at the alter of angst, but I just love writing happiness for M/A. I do have some angst planned though… Thoughts??_


	7. S

_Author's Note: A heartfelt thanks to everyone who's been reading, whether you've reviewed or not! It's just so much fun to see them! I'm really hoping to start churning these out quickly in the coming month! I'm Starting a 6 day Roadtrip to Las Vegas, L.A. and Back...and I Intend to Write a lot! So I'm trying to write from only Alec's POV, we'll see how that turns out. I disclaim, as I own nothing! So don't sue, as all you'll get is a bunch of student loans and my Dragon statues. And I love them very, very much. Although I'd be willing to negotiate for Alec…_

_**Sunday, 7:53 p.m.**_

Biggs loves Sundays. It didn't take Alec too long to figure that part out. His dark haired friend became even more cheerful at the end of the weekend, and it baffled Alec.

Why Sunday of all days? Friday or Saturday sure, that made sense cause hey, you know little to no work. Lots of time to hang out at Crash, play pool, laugh with their friends, and party with girls if they felt so inclined.

It wasn't like Biggs ever really got drug off to an Eyes Only mission; no that particular award was reserved for Alec. So yea for embarking on a world saving crusade! Or not. While Biggs tended to help out with the supply runs, those were conveniently scheduled mid-week.

So nothing really happened on Sundays. Besides Church, which for obvious reasons they both avoided. Alec had been rattling this conundrum around in his head off and on throughout the week and he thought he might've figured it out.

"The Superbowl?" Biggs asked confusion evident as he blinked at Alec like he was an idiot. Which, as Max always pointed out, he realized he kind of was. The Superbowl would only account for one Sunday. Whoops.

"Naw," Biggs scoffed "It's a lot of fun sure," his voice became muffled as he buried his head in Alec's fridge. The sight of him waist deep had Alec rolling his eyes. _What a frigg'n mooch._ "-But I, unlike you want to live off more than just junk food for the rest of my life." Biggs concluded emerging from the fridge with another arm full of condiments.

Alec snorted and nodded pointedly at the array of junk food already spread out on the counter between them.

"Yeah, well…they say 'when in Rome', right?" Biggs held the calm facade for a moment longer before they both busted out with laughter, Biggs juggling to keep the mustard from falling.

"Hey," Alec broke in "Speaking of Rome, do you remember that girl?"

"Oh Yeah. She was studying to be a nun, right?" Biggs responded eyes drifting backwards towards a fond memory, dumping his armful on the counter.

"Do you think she ever went back after?" Alec said a little sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh yeah buddy. Please. Besides what else do you think she could do, who could compare after a stud like me?" Biggs bragged, easing back unto his heels, hooking thumbs in the waistband of his jeans.

"Oh yeah," Alec said sarcasm thick. "You were a real stud when you fell ass over face in the river-" he choked off and dodged a lunge from Biggs. "Ha! Too slow! You always were a-oofff!" Biggs tackled him, pressing Alec's face into the floor.

"Yeah and you never could learn to shut up." Biggs crowed.

"Finally! Somebody backs me up." Biggs started a little in surprise at the interruption. Alec took advantage. He twisted and jabbed Biggs in the ribs causing him to yelp in a rather unmanly way and loosen his grip on Alec's shoulders.

Alec rolled unto his side and gazed up at the queen of bitchiness standing uninvited, yet again in his doorway.

"Yeah, well nobody asked you Max." Alec retorted gazing up her legs encased in all black. He let a naughty smirk play at his lips. She was wearing her catsuit. Nice.

"Hey Max! Are you here to join us?" Alec grunted at Biggs with annoyance, knowing damn well what he was up to. He pushed up a little and scissored his legs around his friend's ankles and tugged. "Woah!" Biggs yelped and flayed around a bit trying to unsuccessfully get his balance back. Alec grinned wider when he crashed back down next to Alec.

"Ow!" Biggs whined before they resumed punching, shoving and kicking at each other.

"Um, do you two want me to leave you alone? You look pretty cozy…am I interrupting something?" Max asked, leaning into the doorway something like humor in her voice. "I can come back later, let you finish your date." Alec sighed and rolled to his back before propping himself up on his elbows, and causally crossed his ankles at her.

"Max you're always interrupting something. You wouldn't be happy if you weren't. So let's cut to the chase, what does Logan need now?" He didn't even bother to hide his annoyance. She scowled at him, like what? He was supposed to be intimidated? It was her ever-present look.

"Logan?" Biggs popped his head up behind Alec, peering over his shoulder at Max like a little kid. "Is that the guy who's always talking down to you like you're stupid?" At Max's expression of flustered rage Alec smirked and turned back a little to face him.

"Yeah, that'd be Logie-bear."

"But is he possessed of the same higher intelligence that we-what's so funny?" Biggs asked puzzled amusement appearing in his brown eyes. Alec was laughing, gasping for air and rolling away from them both, including Max's poorly aimed kick.

"Nothing man, I'll tell you later." Alec sat up, trying to control his giggles and holding his stomach. It was pretty sore considering all the fighting, laughing, wrestling and eating they'd been doing today. Once he felt like he was in control again Alec sighed happily and asked, "Max, what do you need?"

She continued to scowl at them both, arms crossed in irritation.

"Seriously Maxie, what is it? I'm assuming it's important because you know Biggs and I always-"

"Male bonding, girl talk, yada-yada." Max said waving an arm. "I know. But I need somebody to laser my barcode." Alec smiled slow, letting that little bit of naughty tease. It was fun to rile Max up.

"And?" Alec asked arching a brow. There was no way that was it. Max looked uncomfortable, shifting side to side and glancing around his apartment. Avoiding his gaze. He had to strain to hear her mutter-

"And come with me to Logan's to get some info for the supply run this week…" Alec lifted both his eyebrows at her in mild surprise. Since when did he merit the tag-along before he was actually physically needed?

They must be fighting or be 'not-not-like-that' again. Alec sighed. Looks like he was getting to play babysitter today. It would explain some of Logan's odd behavior towards him lately…He turned to Biggs.

"Hey, how's your barcode?" he inquired.

"I'm good." Biggs smiled. "So when do you think you'll be back?" he glanced pointedly down at his watch. Alec frowned at him. How did Biggs KNOW if he was gonna say 'yes' to Max?

Alec could totally say no, stay here and watch the movie Biggs had brought over. Biggs smirked, eyes lighting up in an annoying way, clearly reading his thoughts. Alec huffed out an annoyed sigh before climbing gracefully to his feet. _Whatever._

"An hour? But knowing Maxie, we'll get stuck on some rescue mission of some sort. You know, Save the Whales or some shit." Max popped him up the backside of his head and growled.

"Shut up! It was just that one time! And don't call me Maxie!"

_**Sunday, 8:37 p.m.** _

"How long have you known Biggs?" Max's muffled voice asked from the chair where she lay face down. Alec paused in the act of sweeping her long dark hair off of the back of her neck.

Max broke the 20 minutes of silence that had reigned after a brief, but intense argument about whose bike they were taking over. Eventually they agreed to disagree, by way of giving each other the silent treatment on the way over to the hole in the wall place Max liked to go laser her barcode at. Alec, feeling particularly petty had held on to the sides of her bike, rather than her hips until she'd purposefully taken a corner too sharply and he'd nearly sprawled out on his head.

Guess Max was trying to play nice again. Alec sighed and finished moving her hair out of the way. Her barcode was almost fully inked out in her skin again.

"Alec?" She sounded tense and Alec realized he'd been standing there in silence for a minute staring at her luminous skin.

"Sorry, I got distracted." He expected a quick rebuttal, but she surprised him.

"It's okay. If you don't want to talk about it you don't have to." She sounded a little disappointed though and Alec felt that urge rise up in him again. He hated disappointing her.

He flicked on the laser and began the slow, methodical procedure to erase her barcode. She flinched at the first pass, then relaxed into his hands cradling her neck. Alec licked his lips and decided to answer her question. No harm in that.

"I first met Biggs when we were put into training for Solo Ops. Of course we knew of each other before that, but it wasn't until we were 15 years old that we spent any kind of time together."

"Oh." Alec could tell she was trying not to react to his statement about Solo Ops. He decided to keep the peace and not mention her tone. He could tell she was trying to understand. It surprised him that she bothered to ask the question at all. "Why'd you want to know anyway?" he asked neutrally.

"Don't wiggle." He squeezed her shoulder until she stilled, then returned to his work.

"You just, I don't know. Seem more carefree around Biggs. And, I was just curious." Her voice got a little defensive at the end and Alec chuckled.

"Carefree huh? How'd you figure that?" He could see her fighting the urge to squirm. Clearly she hadn't been expecting to him to answer her questions, as well as ask some of his own.

"You laugh more." She finally said, shifting uncomfortably. Alec stilled.

"I always laugh Max, in fact you're always telling me to be more serious." He completed the final pass of the laser and patted her shoulder, signaling that he was done. Max quickly sat up and brushed her hair back over her shoulder.

"It's not the same." Alec felt his stomach drop a little when she mumbled her response. She was staring straight ahead and if he didn't know better it looked like Max's cheeks were a little pink.

"Of course it's the same." He muttered. He was feeling a little trapped without knowing why. Max jumped down and turned to face him, scowl once again present on her face. Alec felt himself relax a little, this was how he liked to deal with her. When she was just a little bit cranky. Though he would never admit, he liked it when on the rare occasion, he could make her smile.

"No, it's not." She held his eyes for a moment and he was caught in her gaze, brown eyes burning before she cleared her throat. "Anyways, it's your turn." Max indicated that he lay down.

"I'm good Max, Biggs took care of it last week so we'll be good for another week or two, hey you okay?" Alec could've sworn he saw something almost like disappointment cross her face. He felt like he had to explain himself, even though he hadn't done anything wrong.

"We were gonna ask you but, you were-"

"Whatever. I was just making sure you weren't going to get your dumbass shot, exposing us all." She huffed at him and flounced to the door, excluding an unaffected air.

"Okay…" he drawled out following behind her and locking the door.

"Whatever you say Max."

_**Sunday, 11:21 p.m.** _

Of course, they went on a little side trip. No visit to Logan's ended in a "Thanks for stopping by, it was nice to see you-we'll get together and catch up soon!" There were no snacks, movies, gossip or anything else remotely exciting, unless you counted dodging bullets. Which Alec didn't include as excitement after years in Manticore.

No, it was just awkward silences, then unbearable silences and then finally, violence. Max must've smacked him three times. At least. Ungrateful bitch. He was the one giving up 'bro-time' with Biggs.

They were supposed to stop by Logan's, grab the info and leave. That shouldn't be too hard should it? But Nooo, Max can't just say no to perfect Logan who was looking at them the whole time as if he might cry. Seriously, what was up with that?

Or can the surveillance on the baddy of the week wait until tomorrow? Nope. Have to drag Alec away from a perfectly pleasant evening to watch them moon at each other. _Yay fun_.

The icing on the cake was Max acting like he was totally out of line for snapping at Logan when he actually got shot, again! It was seriously starting to cramp his style. And he was starting to doubt Logan's Intel.

How many times were things different then good old Logie had said they'd be? And how many times did he risk his ass for their holier-than-thou crusade? Most of the time everything ended up FUBAR. Clearly Logan needed an information upgrade. Max seriously needed to pull her head outta her ass.

Which was the reason he was stomping home in the rain by himself, blocks from home and bleeding. She hadn't taken too kindly to his…_suggestion_.

"I can't believe it! Oh no wait. I can!" He growled out to the night and no one in particular as he neared the steps leading up into his building.

Banging open his door, Biggs shot up on the couch where he'd obviously been napping. Lucky son of a bitch.

"Woah, dude!" Biggs glanced at his watch. "It's been like, four hours!" He did a double take at Alec's drenched, dirty profile. "You look like shit." he started walking over to him, peering behind him "Where's Max?" Alec growled and started fishing in his closet for the First-aid kit.

"How the hell should I know? She dumped me off the end of her bike and tore off!" Where the hell was the kit? Alec snarled again and kicked the closet door shut.

"Um, you okay? I smell blood."

Alec forced himself to calm down, taking four deep breaths, letting them in and out slowly. Regaining control over his emotions, letting the Manticore mask wash everything else away.

"Yeah, it's just a graze. I'm looking for my kit. We still got some scotch left?" Alec asked.

"Um, yeah. I'll grab it. I think your kit is in the bathroom." Biggs ducked into the kitchen and Alec purposefully strode to the bathroom and found the kit shoved under the sink.

"Here you go, you need any help?" Biggs asked setting down a tumbler full of the rich brown liquor within reach, on the lip of the sink. Alec was already shedding out of his jacket, wincing at the slight pull on his wound.

"Nah, like I said just a graze. Shouldn't even need stitches if I'm lucky."

"You sure?" Biggs looked doubtfully at him from the doorway, eyeing the blood soaked T-shirt Alec was gingerly raising above his head. "That's a lot of blood."

"Yeah well, it reopened when I got shucked from my ride. I'll be fine." Alec knew he was being stubborn, but right now he needed the control, and Biggs, thank god seemed to know this. He shrugged.

"Let me know is you if you need help. In the meantime I'll go make us some sandwiches, Dr. Quinn." Alec felt a real smile ghost across his face for a moment. Maybe Max was right. He definitely felt real amusement with Biggs running the peanut gallery.

"Yeah, yeah you're one to talk Suzy homemaker. Now get back in that kitchen and make me some pie!" he quipped and swatted at Biggs, feeling lighter. Biggs darted away chuckling. Alec took a swig of the scotch, and frowned at the gash in the mirror. It needed to be disinfected first.

Alec poured some antiseptic on a small towel and gingerly pressed it into the furrow in his side, hissing at the sting. Glancing back in the mirror, he took in his pale, grit covered face. Biggs was right, he did look like shit. The blood had seeped down his ribs, leaving a macabre trail down his left side. The blood loss lent him the paleness, and made the freckles he hated, but often won over grandmothers' stand in stark relief across his nose and cheekbones.

There was a bruise forming by his left ear as well as the tingling of a headache. He had a few other bumps and bruises from his spill on the bike, but knew the biggest one would be the one on his ass. Alec glanced over as Biggs appeared in the doorway again munching on a sandwich as big as his head.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall-whose the fairest transgenic of them all?" he cooed at Alec in a high-pitched voice before breaking off to massacre the sandwich again.

"Shut up. And would you please watch the lettuce man? You're getting that shit everywhere." Alec growled at Biggs, who was blinking innocently at him, half his cheek pouched out like a hamster. Alec switched the towel out for another freshly soaked anapestic towel, and the easing of the sting told him it was almost cleaned out.

Alec nodded pointedly at the bits of green fluttering to the floor by Biggs's boots. Biggs just let a wide grin split his face, a particularly disgusting sight with the ½ mawwed food in his mouth. He swallowed hard, while Alec felt his face twist with a grimace.

"Yes your majesty." He simpered before bending down to pick up the pieces. Alec ignored this dig to reach for the tumbler of scotch and drain it dry, letting the liquor burn down his throat and leave warmth in his stomach.

Alec took a deep breath, and held the glass out to Biggs as he straightened, wiggling the glass in the tips of his fingers.

"Ugh, you're like the wicked stepmother- so demanding! Everything has to be so neat and perfect." Biggs said with disgust, snatching the glass away and stomping towards the kitchen. "Treat me like a servant. Just call me Cinder-what'sit." He growled. Alec chuckled.

"And I'm starting to worry about you and all this knowledge you have about fairytales!" Alec said grimacing while he peeled the towel away. Yikes. Alec looked at the skin on the edge of the wound carefully. It was raised, red and a little puffy. Wider than he'd like, so he'd have to have a couple stitches. "Better make that scotch a double!" he called out to Biggs who just grumbled under his breath and retrieved the whole bottle.

Alec quickly threaded a needle and started with the widest section of the gash. He took another calm, steadied breath and pushed the needle through the flesh. It was a sharp hot pain, but one that after a moment he began to get used to, pushing to the back of his mind.

He paused only to drain another glass of scotch Biggs held out to him, keeping his rhythm steady. He was nearing the end when his front door slammed open and Biggs turned, dropping into a defensive crouch. Alec didn't bother reacting, he knew who was charging into his apartment.

"Alec?!"

"Max?" Biggs asked surprised. "What are you doing here?" Alec ignored them both, concentrating on tying off the end of his stitches.

"Where is he?"

"I wouldn't-" Biggs began but Max stormed up in typical fashion, still drenched from the rain. She blew right by Biggs, who gave a surprised squawk at being pushed over. He wasn't used to Max and her particular breed of manners.

"Where the hell have you been?! I've been looking all over Seattle for you!" Max yelled, sounding thoroughly upset. Alec continued to ignore her, and used another towel to begin cleaning off all the dried blood from his torso, arms and hands. He reached directly for bottle, looking to take another long swig when Max moved to stop him.

"You shouldn't be drinking-ow! What the hell?" Max protested loudly snatching her hand back from where he'd smacked it away from him. Hard. "What's the matter with you?"

She shook out her fingers, looking affronted like SHE had any right to be upset by a little sting. Alec leveled a dead-eyed stare at her and she shifted uncomfortably.

"Move." His voice felt emotionless and he suspected that it sounded that way if Biggs and Max's surprised expressions were anything to go by. Max's jaw dropped and hung open a bit. Alec worked to keep his emotions frosted over and cold.

"Move." Biggs grabbed her shoulder and tugged her back a step, and out of the way. Alec brushed by them both being careful not to look at or touch Max in anyway. He was afraid his self-control might snap again. Amazing how quickly she could piss him off.

He walked over to the counter, and chugged a long drink from the bottle before setting it down. Alec leaned forward, keeping his back to them, putting his weight into the palms of his hands. He could feel the tension in his body, running through him like a rod.

"I went back looking for you, but you were gone and I looked everywhere Alec," Max started after a moment of tense silence.

"Get out."

"What?"

"I said, get out Max."

"Alec, listen to me. I'm-"

"No Max. I don't wanna hear how sorry you are. You're not here about me; you're here about you. Alleviating your guilt that you dumped some shumuck off the back of your bike and left him bleeding in the rain. You aren't sorry Max, so get the fuck out."

"Alec, you aren't some shumuck, you're my-"

"What? Your friend? That's a laugh. Be serious Max." Alec finally whirled to face her, emotion clouding over the control he'd tried to keep. He crossed his arms across his bare chest to keep from reaching out to throttle her. Max looked stricken, but he was too pissed to care.

"People don't treat their friends like shit Max."

"Alec, I-" but he wasn't in the mood to hear her excuses or watch her eyes shimmer in what looked suspiciously like tears. Her eyes darted to his stitched wound and he saw her eyes darken in despair at the raw, ugly wound.

"Max. Save it. I thought we were friends, I was wrong. It's no big deal. I'll get over it, so you don't have to pretend to care, apologize or feel guilty, got it? A free get out of jail free card. I have my own friends now, on your esteemed advice and I won't bother you anymore. Door's open sweetheart, don't let it hit you on the ass on the way out." Alec turned back slightly, bitterly reaching for the bottle of scotch again.

Max's face went from being surprised, horrified, sad and angry all in the space of a minute. She clenched her fists at her sides, wet hair dripping down her shoulders.

"Fine! Be a jerk! I came to say I was sorry! I went back for you Alec, and you were gone! I thought that White had-"

"Oh please, spare me-" he interjected

"No! You listen! I was worried about you, so I'm sorry I yelled when I got here!" Max was really bellowing now, and Biggs, who had remained forgotten in the background took a startled step back his eyes bugging out slightly.

"But you are my friend you big, stupid moron! I don't care how many new ones you get to replace me!" Biggs looked at her with surprise.

"Max, that's not what I'm trying to do. Alec and I just go way back." He started but Max completely ignored him, and kept yelling at Alec.

"I'm sorry I got mad and threw you off, I shouldn't have done that. But you don't get to call it quits after a year of bugging the crap outta me! I need you around and I'm gonna kick your ass when you're feeling better for even suggesting otherwise! You're lucky I'm the forgiving sort!" Max roared, right in his stunned surprised face.

She turned away, stomping towards the door. Alec was frozen now, in shock rather than anger and Biggs's mouth was hanging open wide enough to catch flies. Alec felt like he'd been kicked in the gut. Max spun around, just in front of the door to yell back at him.

"And I'm leaving because I want to, not because you told me to!" She slammed the door so hard it rattled the wall and got the upstairs neighbor thumping on the floor. Dust drifted down in her wake.

"Wow." Biggs said a few minutes later, after Alec hadn't given any indication of movement or speech. His amazed look morphed into a knowing grin. "She sure is one hell of a firecracker, huh?" Alec cleared his throat nosily and shook his head a little to clear it of hurricane Max.

"Yeah."

"So...don't take this the wrong way. I mean clearly you're already pretty cranky." Alec frowned a little at him.

"What?" he asked suspiciously

"You guys have like, amazing chemistry. But I don't know if you guys actually like each other all that much." Alec paused for a moment, before he grinned and arched an eyebrow.

"Gee, you think?" Biggs laughed and pointed at him.

"I'll bet you'd be on fire in the sack together though. Plenty of heat." Alec rolled his eyes. Not that again.

"See this my man, is why I love Sundays. Max always interrupts, without fail. And you always follow along with whichever scheme of the week and it's better than a god-damned soap opera or Korean drama." Alec couldn't help but burst out laughing, only to stop on a groan and clutch his side.

"Man, you've gotta stop that. I've been beaten to the dogs today, no offense to Josh."

"Yeah well if today was any indication, you've got a shit-storm more headed your way."

"Why me?" Alec whined a little

"Just lucky I guess." Biggs said another smile pulling across his face. It was good to see Biggs smiling. "I personally, can't wait until next week."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Alec asked limping over to his dresser to grab a spare shirt.

"Based on my extensive knowledge of you guys. It's sure to be epic. I guarantee it." Alec huffed out another laugh, and started making his way to the sofa.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_**Sunday, 10:34 p.m.** _

Biggs was dead. Dead. And death, which had always been a part of Alec's life, now seemed surreal. They were supposed to be safe, on the outside. They had a future. Jobs. Maybe Biggs had a crappy job, but it was his. His life. He deserved better than this.

To die, alone and frightened. He should've gone out fighting, but he couldn't bring himself to hurt the ordinaries that killed him. Overwhelmed him.

He deserved better than to be strung up and displayed like he was some kind of freak. For wanting a life. Even retribution sought did little to ease the black pain that welled up at the thought of his friend gone.

No satisfaction, only continuing pain.

Alec had been unable to stay in his apartment, so near where he'd died. But also because it was so near where he lived. Everywhere in his apartment there were memories of Biggs.

Josh didn't ask any questions when he'd shown up in T.C. with boxes in his arms. He just opened the door, letting Alec slip past.

Max had surprised him though, by showing up for the mission to retrieve his body.

"_Max, you don't have to come."_

"_Yes I do. I want to. He was your family Alec. I couldn't let you do this…alone."_

_"Thanks" was all he could mutter, before turning away, throat tight to join Mole by the truck._

And now, it was Sunday again. A week ago, Biggs was laughing at Alec, dropping food all over his floor. Now, a week later he was dead. They were keeping him safe the only way they could, with a funeral pyre.

"Alec?" Max's voice came out of the darkness hesitant, unsure. He looked down, away from the flames and there she was. Standing by his side, flickers of light playing across her solemn face. It was so like the day Biggs died Alec's heart constricted.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Max kept her voice soft, but Alec stiffened anyways. He clenched his fist, anger welling inside him. He waited for her to push, for him to lash out and push her further away...but she fell silent.

He followed her gaze to Biggs's pyre burning bright into the night sky. _Dead's dead. _Alec was reminded briefly of the pain months ago, when he'd finally remembered Rachel. Max had offered her shoulder then, but he'd rebuffed it, not trusting her. That she could understand him. That she was anything, really like him.

But she was still trying. Fighting. Maybe Biggs's wasn't 100% right, maybe they did like each other a little bit. Enough that, despite her selfish stubbornness and his self-involved stupidity they really were friends.

Alec cleared his throat a little bit, and Max's gaze swung back to him, eyes shinning in the dark.

"I hate Sundays." He managed to croak out and Max looked at him stunned for a moment. Then understanding dawned deep in her brown eyes. Hesitantly she stepped closer to him, and slipped her bare hand into his.

Alec looked down at their hands, clasped firmly together runes standing darkly against her skin. A tiny part of the pain eased back, and Alec felt just a little bit lighter for it.

"I know." Max whispered, squeezing his hand and gazing up into his face. "Me too."

Alec held her simmering brown eyes for a moment longer, before turning back to the flames. He had a sudden sense of Biggs then, being right _there_. Laughing in his ear and Alec closed his eyes to hear the last echo of Biggs's voice in his mind.

"_It's sure to be epic, man. I guarantee it."_

_AN: * sobs * Biggs! Ah, I wish they had done more with his character, and his death. I really think it could've jumped some storylines. I hope this made sense, and wasn't too angsty. But M/A called out for a little angst from me. Sorry about the delay. Our Internet went kaput, because Qwest is stuipd and I had to go a whole week and a half without! Reviews as always are most welcome._


	8. R

_Finally! After an Extensive Overhaul, I Finally Present RUNE. I Blame My Semi-crazy Life, and Picky Muse for the Delay on This One. Or I Could Be Like Max, and Unfairly Blame Alec...But Only if I Get to be the One to Choose His Punishment...This would involve some shirtless apartment cleaning I think…lol_

_I Disclaim. I Don't Own Dark Angel, or Supernatural. Did I Mention This is Another CrossOver? Oh. Well. Guess I Just Did. This is Another View of Mixing DA/SN post Season 4 Premiere. Mild spoilers for Season 4 Supernatural…If you Haven't Been Glued to Your TV Like Me…Reviews are always welcome!_

**Rune**

_May 30__th__ ?_

It was instinct that woke Max up.

Living under the constant threat of near-war, and the siege had honed Max's animal instincts to a sharpness Manticore would've been proud of. Her eyes popped open, then slid to half-mast, trying to keep the element of surprise. It was something being friendly with Alec had taught her. Surprise, catching someone unawares was often the difference between life and death.

There was an unfamiliar odor in the air and it pricked at her senses. It was metallic and tangy, but there was something…overlaying it. Fear chilled her blood and stopped her heart when another voice spoke from the darkness.

"Max Guevara it is time you woke."

The voice filled the room with a sense of raw power and age. Max found herself helpless to resist. Turning her head slowly she found that she was lying on an unfamiliar bare mattress. She was thankful to her excellent night vision that brought the man's features into detail, though he hung back in the shadows.

"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?" Max managed to husk out, her throat felt dry and parched. She eased up slowly on her elbows and glared at the man in the corner. He took a step closer to her, and a shaft of light caught his face.

A frown marred otherwise handsome features. Dark thick hair, angled jawbone and a straight nose. His mouth was caught in a neutral expression but there was a troubled expression in his blue eyes. He wore a rumpled suit under a tan trench coat. An easy mark, and unless he was a Familiar she'd have no trouble taking him down.

"It's time to go. They need you." His voice was quiet, but stern.

"They?" Max feigned grogginess and the stranger took another step closer to her.

"The Winchesters." He replied. Max made a note to have Logan check them out once she'd kicked the demanding accountant's butt.

"Why?" She let her eyes start to slip closed again when he took the next step that brought him into her striking range. The stranger reached out a hand, as if to grab her shoulder and that's when Max sprang to her feet.

Gripping his arm she twisted it painfully behind his back and attempted to shove him face first on the bed. She was surprised to find he resisted her, so Max twisted his arm harder. His shoulder wrenched free of its socket with a sick pop. The man showed no reaction and Max felt a shudder ripple through her. He must be a Familiar after all.

"Another one of White's lackeys? What? He's afraid of one girl?" Max snarled.

"I don't work for Ames White, Max. I'm an angel of the lord." Max scoffed.

"Great, a whole new kind of crazy aren't we?" She rolled her eyes. _Wait till Alec hears this one._ She was distracted by her sarcastic thoughts and was startled to find the man resisted her strength, turned quickly in her arms and gripped her neck with his good hand. Max had him pinned expertly, and Familiar or not, he shouldn't have been able to break away so easily.

"What the-" she managed to croak out before her oxygen supply was diminished and he lifted her easily up and off the ground.

_Shit._

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30__th__, 2021 12:43 a.m. Terminal City_

Standing under the spray of water, Alec rubbed his knuckles across his scalp and frowned. He was alone in the communal showers, a product of working late at Command. But he felt twitchy, itchy, restless, whatever verb you wanted to use to describe him. He kept glancing around the gloomy room expecting to find a pair of eyes fixed on him.

It was seriously starting to creep him out.

Max had been on his case all week. The strange feelings had caused a few moments of distraction that drew her Royal Highness's attention to him. Normally he didn't mind being her sole focus but he felt like he was missing something important.

With an irritated growl he snapped the water off and briskly toweled himself dry as he headed over to the far bench where he'd left clothes. Alec slipped the jeans up his legs and was finishing the zipper when it happened.

A flush of heat washed over his whole body, leaving a path of itching in its wake.

"Jesus Christ!" He growled and spun to view the whole room. "What in the hell is going on?!" Glancing down his torso he noted nothing out of the ordinary. Running his hand through his damp hair he let out a frustrated sigh and sank down onto the wooden bench and started digging in his duffel for his phone.

It was wrapped up in his clean T-shirt so after he shrugged it on he flipped the cover up and pressed a button to connect straight to Command. The phone was an old, but reliable model that was based on a pre-pulse phone that gave the caller the option to treat it as a walkie-talkie. After becoming a permanent resident behind the barricade Alec had seen the potential time saving quality and "invested" in a few of them.

"Command." Dix's voice came through the microphone.

"Dix, its Alec. Anything unusual happening?"

"Um, Alec? Didn't you just leave 15 minutes ago?" Alec sighed and ran another hand through his hair.

"Yeah. I was just checking in."

"Oh. Nope. Nothing's changed. Most of T.C. is slumbering. Just the night models on duty." There was wry amusement in Dix's tone, but Alec ignored it.

"No reports of anything at all unusual? Is Max there?" Dix didn't bother to cover his snort before he continued.

"No, nothing unusual. Just the usual reports. And this is Max's night off. So she's either sleeping or she headed over to Logan's…" Dix trailed off.

"Right. Okay. Well let me know if anything strange happens."

"Yeah, sure. Get some sleep already, okay?" Alec could hear the admonishment in his tone. Guess Max wasn't the only one who'd noticed he been distracted lately. _Great_.

"No prob. I'm on my way to catch some Z's now. Alec out."

"Copy. Command out." Alec sighed and snapped his phone shut. He tugged on his boots and hefted his duffel over his shoulder. Guess he'd better at least make an attempt at sleep.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30__th__, ? _

Max quickly recovered and gripped his hand in her own and tried to pry his fingers from her throat. His grip was like iron, and while she could still breathe, it would take only a marginal tightening to end that.

Switching tactics she brought her knee up sharply into his torso. While the man grunted he didn't even move.

"Who in the hell are you?" Max ground out and leveled another kick at him.

"My name is Castiel, and I'm here to save your future."

"Some savior," she growled "You're choking me!" He loosened his grip a little, and Max struck at his face with her fist. Blood started to flow from the corner of his lip.

"You continue to try and harm this vessel. Until you stop I must keep you from injuring it, or yourself." Max paused and looked into his face with disbelief.

"It? Vessel? _What_ is your damage?" She could feel a trill of fear chase down her spine. Whoever this whacko was, he believed whatever it was that he was telling her. What scared her was that she was starting to believe him. Max didn't know of anyone who could withstand transgenic strength so easily. Even a Familiar would be forced a half step back.

"Damage?" He gave her a slightly confused look.

"Yeah, I mean what is your problem? You a nut or what?" Max was surprised to find him slowly lowering her down to her toes, though he didn't release her. He continued to give her a puzzled look but answered her.

"No. I've brought you back to the past, to find the Winchesters. They can help you translate your Runes." He slowly released her neck, seemingly oblivious to her stunned expression. Locking his injured arm between his knees he popped his shoulder back into place with another neutral expression. His gaze was brought back to her when she broke out into a small fit of hysterical giggles.

"You really are crazy." She gasped out.

"I'm not."

"Oh really? Then what time have you dropped me too?" Her glance around the room revealed an abandoned house, nothing unusual in her time.

"May 30th, 2009. We're in Kansas, more specifically." Max's gaze sharpened back to him.

"Pre-pulse USA." She deadpanned. "Castiel, was it? If that's true, why here, why now?"

"As I said, to get your Runes translated. I'm trying to help save the future, and the Winchesters can help." A deep furrow developed between his brows. "We need to get moving, there's not a lot of time left."

"But nobody can translate the Miaroan runes, except for the Familiars!" Max growled out, raking her hand through her long dark hair. "Logan and Dix have been trying for months!" Castiel stepped forward and pointed to a faded map tacked on the wall. Max rolled her eyes and said "Lawrence? I'm pretty sure that there won't be any Familiars in the middle of nowhere."

"You don't need the Familiars." Castiel explained. "You need Sam Winchester."

"Sam Winchester? One of the guys you keep babbling about? Why do I need him?"

"Because _he_ can translate your Runes." A hint of irritation was finally creeping into Castiel's voice.

"But he's not a Familiar?"

"No. He's something else entirely." Max shifted her weight back a little.

"Something else?" Max asked suspiciously. "Is he transgenic?"

"No."

"Another of Sandeman's earlier creations? Like Joshua and the transhumans?" She arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, Sam is a Hunter. One with unusual..._gifts_." Max wasn't sure she liked the look in his blue eyes. Whatever it was it made him wary.

"A hunter?" Max snorted. "Right. Like that doesn't sound vaguely ominous. What exactly does he hunt?" she asked crossing her arms across her chest.

"Fell creatures and monsters." He was completely serious when he said it. Max wanted to laugh, but suddenly it didn't seem so funny.

"Monsters? Are you kidding me? You want me to waltz in there and get help from some crazy, backwaters hick hunter...for help with translating runes? Seriously, you're insane." Max jabbed a finger in his direction. "You aren't an angel of the "lord" and I sure as hell ain't helping you lead a new brand of hunter after my family!" She started stalking towards the door behind him. Since he didn't seem to want to hurt her, Max was thinking she'd be able leave. She hoped.

"Monsters exist Max. Real monsters, not of your brethren. And the Winchesters are important in turning back the forces of evil."

"This is unreal. You're crazy." Max dragged her hand through her hair in frustration. Suspicion bloomed across her face and she peered around the room in irritation." I swear Alec, if this is some stupid prank on your part..."

"Alec has nothing to do with you being here now Max. Technically, you don't exist here."

"Right, cause I wasn't alive and kicking butt in '09." She rolled her eyes and moved towards the door again.

"You were a child, and existed to no one other than Manticore and your siblings, correct?" He continued, his voice perfectly calm and rational. Even though nothing about this whole situation was rational.

"Oh, right. I forgot. This is supposedly a "pre-pulse" world, right? Funny. It still looks like the same old dumpy world to me." She said sarcastically. At her flippant remark, he scowled and stalked over to the heavily curtained window and ripped back the shades.

At the sunlight spilling through onto the old wooden floor Max stopped suddenly. Moving to the old windowsill, she peered outside and was almost floored by what she saw.

Blue sky, sunlight and green fields peaking from over the small, rounded hill. _No frigg'n way._ She spun on her heel, and darted out the door. It led to a narrow hallway, and as she made her way towards the front door she glimpsed other rooms. Rooms filled with furniture covered in white sheets.

"Max," Castiel started but she ignored him and yanked the front door open.

She paused on the creaky porch, blinking slowly at the car driving by the front of the house. Clean streets, a group of kids laughing and playing with a dog further down the block. _Oh, God._ Max shook her head, refusing to believe it. There were more houses clustered further up by where the kids were playing.

She startled them a little when she ran right up to them.

"What town is this?" She asked breathlessly. Two boys and a girl around 10-11 years old blinked in surprise at her. The boys stared at her black leather pants with something close to amazement, but after a moment the girl spoke up.

"Um, you're in Lawrence. Kansas." The girl added as a helpful afterthought. Max's face paled and the girl asked "Hey, are you okay?"

"Oh? Yeah." Max cleared her throat a little. "Yeah. I'm fine, thanks. Town this way?" Max shook her head to clear it a little. She pointed north towards the expansion of town. When the girl nodded, Max took off in the direction. Her movement seemed to startle the boys out of their revere, and one with dark curly hair spoke up suddenly.

"Hey, you need a ride or anything?" When Max turned to look at him with surprise, he hooked a thumb over his shoulder towards a bicycle lying on its side in the grass. Even though she was starting to panic a little, the gesture had an amused grin tugging at the corner of her lips. "You can ride on the handle bars. I know my way around town pretty well." The boy bragged. The other boy snorted, and the little girl glared fiercely at them both.

"Thanks Romeo, but I prefer to walk." The boy's face fell, and as Max walked away she couldn't help but smile and call back. "Nice line though. A little older and it might've worked." At his startled expression she winked at him.

_Great. She was stranded in the middle of nowhere and channeling Alec. _

She jogged down the block a little, noting that the kids watched her until she was out of sight, but she also noted there was no sign of Castiel. After a moment she tugged the zipper down on her leather jacket, opening her torso up to the slight breeze. A squint at the sun put it in the position to be a couple hours after noon. Her last memory before she woke up in the house was falling asleep in her bed in T.C. It had definitely been after midnight too.

Up a head there was a gas station, apparently active and open for anyone to pump gas. Max dropped out of her jog, and wearily approached the front. Her fingers twitched with the urge to pilfer some gas for her baby, but squelched the urge. Glancing around she noted there were several people, some who were giving her a weary look themselves.

Guess a girl dressed all in black leather wasn't a common occurrence.

When she found a newspaper dispenser, she strong armed it open and snatched the top copy of what was the "Lawrence Daily" newspaper. Once her eyes found the date in the corner of the paper Max felt her head swimming and sat down on the curb.

_May 30__th__, 2009._

This was weird, even by her standards. Groaning she buried her head in her hands and muttered "Oh Toto, we aren't in Seattle anymore."

................................................................................................................................................

_May 30__th__, 2021 1:52 a.m. Terminal City_

Alec was tossing uneasily in his bed. Rolling onto his back for what felt like the thousandth time he scratched at his forearms. He glanced over at his digital clock and found that it was almost 2 a.m. _Damnit._

With a huffed sigh he climbed out of bed and rubbed at the back of his head in irritation. He wasn't the one with shark DNA, so he really didn't know why he wasn't able to drop off into dreamland peacefully. He felt jumpy, not to mention itchy. He'd already called into Command again to check that everything was running ship-shape. If he called a third time he just might test Dix's patience.

With a groan Alec sent an annoyed threat to whatever dude was in control of his fate, destiny, whatever. _I fall asleep during one of Maxie's lectures again and my family jewels are toast pal. So cut the crap and let me sleep already!_

Grabbing his empty glass off the crate that served as his coffee table, he headed for the kitchen. The water took a moment to spurt out of the faucet, and Alec waited until it stopped looking so brown before he filled the glass halfway. _Urgh._

He watched the sediment start to settle on the bottom before he took a gulp. He should be grateful they had any sort of water hook-up, but he really wished he didn't have to look at the crap he was ingesting. With a scowl he slammed the glass down and stalked irritably off towards his bed.

_Max was probably enjoying clean water at Logan's house. _

The vindictive thought made him pause by his couch. He shook his head vigorously. What did he care if Max was spending her time off with her 'not-like-that' boyfriend? Continuing his trek to his bed he climbed back under the blanket and tried to turn his brain off. Was probably only thinking about where she was because he'd stopped by her place on the way to his apartment. Alec found she wasn't there and had promptly left and tried to doze off in front of his own television.

_Obviously successful_. With another twitch he rolled back over onto his stomach and stubbornly closed his eyes.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30__th__, 2009. Lawrence, Kansas._

Max wasn't sure exactly how long she sat there with her head in her hands. It felt like an eternity before a long shadow fell across her feet, bringing her gaze up. Castiel stood over her, a pitying gaze on his face. It was this expression that snapped Max back to herself.

"What in the hell did you do to me asshole?" She growled up at him. Max shot to her feet and poked her finger into his chest. "Why in the world would you bring ME back?!"

"Because you are a Chosen one." Castiel gripped her elbow and began hauling her after him down the side street. "Quickly. We waste far too much precious time on your arguments. You MUST find the Winchesters _now_." He took a sharp right back into a neighborhood of slightly older, run down houses. "They will only be in a known location for a little while longer."

For a moment longer Max continued to resist Castiel's guidance, before with a great sigh and a scowl she finally gave in.

"Where are we going anyway?" She muttered in irritation.

"Missouri Mosley's house." Castiel responded taking another left leading away from the main road.

"Who is that?"

"A psychic, and old friend of the Winchester family." Max rolled her eyes.

"Why are they at a psychic's house? Trying to foresee the winning lotto numbers?" she quipped.

"Because they are seeking guidance as to how best prevent the final seal from being broken." Max scrunched her face in response.

"Wait, seal? What seal? You haven't exactly explained a whole hell of a lot here buddy!"

"They are, in essence trying to prevent the same thing from happening that you are."

"Which is what, exactly? Cause I'd sure as hell like to know. Familiar's aren't exactly the sharing sort." Max scowled.

"There are 66 seals in place to keep the Lord of Hell, Lucifer from rising to the earth. Lilith is breaking them, and we must prevent the final seal from being broken."

"Lucifer? Lilith? What do they have to do with Familiars?" Max didn't do anything to keep the confusion out of her voice.

"Sam Winchester can hopefully give us these answers." Castiel turned another corner, and let Max tug her arm out of his grip.

"Hopefully? Oh god. This is insane." She shook her head ruefully. "There aren't enough pronouns for the word crazy. I've finally cracked under pressure. There's NO way I'm currently involved in a time travel plot to save the world! That shit just _doesn't_ happen."

"You'd do better to not mention that you're from the future." Castiel gave her a worried gaze, brow furrowed.

"Won't the psychic know?" Max muttered sarcastically.

"You won't be meeting her. We must catch them before they leave her house, though. Or we may never find them again." He set off without her, and for a moment Max thought about running in the other direction.

"Great, we can't have that." She muttered under her breath, before rolling her eyes and following after him. Curiosity was getting the better of her.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30__th__, 2021 2:03 a.m. Terminal City_

"Awww, doesn't anything in this god-forsaken place work?" Dix calmly ignored the moan from Rex, the evening's senior officer on boarder patrol. He was currently engrossed in the monitor's visual feed. He'd just finished reworking the imaging, and wanted to make sure that the picture was coming in clear.

"Man," Rex's whining voice sounded over Dix's left shoulder "We don't even have any freak'n sugar?!"

"In case you forgot, we're in the middle of a siege. Sugar isn't exactly high up on the priority list for supply runs." Dix finally dragged his monocled gaze away from the monitors to look at the unhappy blond. "And the stuff we get goes to Mess Hall, and not for coffee."

"Bummer, dude." Rex squinted at the sludge that was currently passing for coffee. "I could do with a sugar rush, I'm so freak'n bored." Dix simply shook his head and turned back to the monitors. Rex shrugged and slugged some down anyway. "Gah!" He gasped. "How does Alec stand this frigg'n shit!"

"You get used it." Came Dix's deadpan reply.

Rex was fairly new to Seattle, having bounced to the beaches of California before news about Transgenics having barcodes had been released to the public. Guess even surfer bums watched the news, cause he'd had to leave town quick. Ended up in Seattle after he saw news footage of their flag raising ceremony.

Rex was a great addition to the boarder patrol because he liked to move and as an added bonus, he was a night model. He looked every inch the beach bum, shaggy blond locks with the occasional dreadlocks, a deep tan and a very chill attitude. Dix liked the guy, but personally thought he was a bit of a complainer.

"So, anything interesting happen'n tonight dude?" Rex stretched his arms behind his head and Dix caught a glimpse of his gun tucked into the waistband of his cargo pants.

"Nothing on the scanners, and monitors aren't showing anything besides the patrols." Dix looked back at him and frowned. "Isn't your break over with?" Rex chuckled.

"Trying to get rid of me?" When Dix didn't reply he continued. "Dude, that's why it's nice to be a _senior_ officer." Rex's brown eyes twinkled. "I get to pick my break time."

"Hmmm." Dix said noncommittally. "I wouldn't go bragging about that around Max if I were you." Rex chortled.

"Well, it's a good thing it's her night off, yeah?" Dix shrugged. He wasn't a big talker. "Dude, what's that?" Dix turned around and looked at the screen Rex was pointing at.

"Something interesting." Dix said with a small frown.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2009 Lawrence, Kansas. _

Max and Castiel rounded another corner and Max thought they'd be walking forever when something caught her eye.

It was a big, sleek, black car, all power. It reminded her suddenly of her baby back home, hopefully still safe in T.C.'s underground garage.

Two men were currently loading the car up. One was waist deep on the driver's side, head out of sight. A tall man with shaggy brown hair around her age, perhaps a little older swung duffel and a stack of books into a huge, cavernous trunk.

"Dude, you better not be eating that chicken without me." There was annoyance in the tone, but also something close to resigned affection.

"Aww, Sammy. You know I wouldn't!" the voice was muffled but he began pulling back out, hurriedly wiping something off on his jeans. "Besides, you've got the pie still!" He leaned across the top of the car and grinned innocently at 'Sammy' who was closing the trunk with a Tupperware container in his hand.

When she caught his profile Max stopped suddenly, drawing the attention of both men.

"Alec?" Max felt the words leave her mouth in a stunned gasp. At his look of confusion Max took a startled step back. _No. Not Alec. But not Ben either. Who was this? An older version of her friend and brother? An X-4 maybe?_

"Sorry sweetheart." The stranger's eyes warmed to a vivid green and his stance loosened, all confidence and swagger. "I'm not your Alec...but I'd sure like to be." A familiar devilishly handsome smirk pulled at his full lips and Max felt her heart stutter in confusion. Every one of her senses were screaming at her that it wasn't him but there was a sense of her friend there that made Max long for home, long for Alec with a sharp bittersweet tang.

"Dean," Sam said exasperation creeping into his voice. "Focus."

"What? I can't let a beautiful woman know I'm available?" Dean swung his eyes back to her stunned face, oozing charm. "It's the end of the world, Sammy. I'm living life to the fullest!"

"End of the world is pretty run of the mill for us Dean, and I think you used up all of your favors in your time before hell." Sam paused and glanced away from Dean to look at Castiel with a little wariness. "My question is what exactly are the angels doing back here, and who exactly is she?"

Max continued to ignore 'Sammy' who turned inquisitive eyes on her face. She couldn't tear her gaze away from the man, this Dean Winchester with Alec's face.

_End Part One._

_A/N: The rest is coming, I just have some final edits. I had to split it in two, because it was getting awfully long. Expect more answers than questions in the next part. And Action! Maybe even some more improper grammer! Who knows?_


	9. RII

_Wow. I am WAY overdue on this. I'm sorry that it took so long! I just wanted to get the tone right, and I have issues with no matter how many times I read through something…I always feel like I'm missing something. But I finally figured it was as good as I could make it…so here you go!_

_Once again, I disclaim. I don't own Dark Angel or Supernatural. It's a fun vision of how they could've crossed things over. Where I imagine a happy world of twice the Jensen goodness! Reviews feed my soul, broken and withered though it might be!_

**Rune**

_May 30th, 2021 2:10 a.m. Terminal City_

There were several cameras spread in strategic places throughout the wasteland of Terminal City. The ones with the best resolution were covering the entrances to T.C, the armory, the perimeter fence and the streets just outside Command. Several of the lower grade cameras were placed in secondary locations, like the garage, Medical and Mess Hall.

"Something interesting?" Rex asked in incredulous disbelief. The small flare of light that had caught his eye was gathering power and flaring out the entire bottom left of the screen. "That looks like trouble to me."

The camera that had caught Rex's attention was currently angled towards the building where they did their hand to hand training. It was a stationary camera and covered the small open field outside the training room. In a pre-pulse world it must've been a small park for all the yuppies to go sit in on their lunch breaks.

"It could be a residual camera flare I just recalibrated." Dix said with a small frown reaching over and tapping the screen. The light slowly began to fade. "I wouldn't raise the alarm just yet. Have patrol check it out, I'll grab Mole." Dix pushed out of his chair and moved down the hallway towards the transhuman's office.

Rex snorted and grabbed the walkie that was hanging from his hip.

"Pog, this is Rex. Call out your location. Over."

There was a hiss of static before Pog's voice carried back over the radio.

"Northwest of Mess sir."

"I want you to bug on over to the field outside the training room, we've got an unknown anomaly showing up on camera, appearing in the West end just south of the old oak tree."

"Copy that. Over."

"Do NOT engage; observe and report only. We'll send Krys as backup. Over."

"Roger that boss. I'll radio when I'm in position. Over and out."

……………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2009. 5:37 p.m. Old Highway 81, Nebraska. _

Max was sitting in the backseat of the Winchester's beast of a car. Arms and legs angrily crossed she was thinking up all the ways to fry up and roast a certain abandoning angel.

As if kidnapping her, not only out of state but also out of time wasn't bad enough, he'd dumped her with a doppelganger of Alec.

Who was quite possibly as irritating as her own friend-pseudo enemy back home.

But Dean was also the closest thing resembling home right now, so she was busy burning a hole in the back of his head. Glaring at Alec always made her feel better, no matter how messed up the situation got.

Dean and Alec shared another trait though, because he was happily ignoring her annoyed look and was singing along with the music. He apparently listened to nothing but ancient rock. She snorted quietly to herself. As if Alec's rap videos weren't bad enough.

Max could sense another pair of eyes on her, so she finally turned to meet the other man's gaze.

Sam Winchester, all tall gangly limbs and dark floppy hair was currently studying her like a complex math problem.

"What?" Max bit out, all attitude.

Sam jerked back a little, startled that she'd talked to him after almost two hours of complete silence.

_Once the boys had noticed her standing next to Castiel, the angel had made eye contact with Dean before speaking in low urgent tones._

"_You need her to stop Lilith. Without her, you cannot hope to win. The prophecy both begins and ends with her."_

_Dean hadn't even gotten his mouth open to question Castiel about who exactly she was when the angel had turned to her with a stern look on his face._

"_Max. The runes are the key. With them you can get home."_

"_What in the hell does that mean!" Max snarled out. She'd been assuming they'd meet up with these guys, chat about the strange runes covering her body and then get home to T.C. The tone of his voice was setting alarms off in her head and she reached for him quickly, only to grasp empty air. Castiel left nothing behind but the sound of wings flapping._

"_Son of a bitch!"_

_Max and Dean glanced sharply at each other when they'd spat the same phrase out. Max haughtily tossed her hair to the side and planted a fist on her cocked hip. Lifting her chin defiantly, she used her other hand to point at them._

"_Somebody better start explaining what in the hell is going on here before I start kicking some ass." Max snarled._

_The Alec look-a-like named Dean rolled his eyes, before turning to Sam._

"_Does this mean we have to share the fried chicken?"_

"_Dean," Sam started._

"_Yeah, Sammy. I know." Dean ran a hand through his hair and turned a charming smile on her. "Max, was it? I'm-"_

"_Dean Winchester. And you must be the Sam I was supposed to chat about my runes with. Your friend is a real douche bag, let me tell you."_

"_He's not exactly our friend." Sam muttered quietly. "Wait, your runes? What do you mean by that?" Sam asked, interest sparking in hazel brown eyes._

_Max sighed irritably and shrugged out of her jacket. Glared at Dean when he tilted his head to the side to watch her appreciatively. Max tugged her black, long sleeve tee up to expose a line of runes running up her wrist and gave them a brief flash of the newest set at her hip. Turned the glare up a notch when Dean whistled._

"_Holy shit. Dean, -" Sam's eyes widened to comic proportions._

"_We need to take this someplace else, now." Dean said getting serious and dropping his shoulders. He turned careful eyes to the surrounding houses. "It's not safe here."_

"_What's going on? I'm really tired of being in the dark." Max growled._

"_Yeah, well join the club sweetheart." Dean said reaching for a flask from an inner pocket of his leather jacket._

"_Don't call me sweetheart." Max felt her irritation ratchet up another notch. Dean glared back at her before downing a long pull of what smelled like whiskey._

"_Well, the next part of this conversation needs to happen in private."_

"_Ugh. Ew. I don't think so."_

_Dean's eyes lit up with amusement and he winked at her._

"_Sorry sweetheart, I'll have to take a rain check. We've got more important things to think about right now."_

_Max seethed and clenched her hands into tight fists, taking a menacing step towards him. The bastard didn't even blink just reached over and elbowed Sam._

"_Show her Sammy. We need to get this show on the road. Time's a wasting to the end of the world and this chick is killing my home-made pie buzz."_

"_Chick?!" Max glowered._

_Sam did his own version of an eye roll and tugged his sleeve up. Max stared at his arm for a minute in stunned silence._

_No. Frigg'n. Way._

_There, inked out in tanned flesh were Minoan runes just like hers_.

Max had, with some reluctance gotten into the car and said a big screw you Castiel, and told them a sanitized version of her life thus far. Time travel and all. The Winchester's were decidedly non-pulsed about the whole situation. Seems Dean had been taken on a little trip with Castiel himself.

It only cemented that what OC said was true, all men were frigg'n jerks. Agents of God or not.

In turn, she'd listened to an abbreviated version of the Winchester's sordid history.

She'd taken it with a grain of salt.

Ghosts. Monsters. Demons, Hell, Angels, prophesies and Classic rock.

But when you compared that to Transgenics, Tranhumans, Eyes Only, Normal, White's Familiars and Joshua and Alec's duets? It almost seemed normal.

Didn't mean that Max hadn't needed to take a little time to inwardly freak out.

But now that she'd gotten her head on somewhat straight, enough to start trying to figure her way out of this whole dumb, messed up situation…meant that puppy-dog eyes over there needed to stop staring at her.

"What're you look'n at?" Max asked again when it had been a few moments and Sam still hadn't said anything.

"Sorry." He glanced down sheepishly. "I was just trying to figure out how you ended up with your runes."

"Sandeman, duh." Max tossed her hair back over her shoulder and looked out the window at the passing landscape.

"Um, actually…" Sam began scratching behind his ear.

"What?" Max swung her attention back to the brothers.

"Given that I'm here now, and you're from the future, it's unlikely that Sandeman is the creator of-"

"You don't know that."

Sam shrugged.

"You're right. I don't know for sure. But if what you say is true, and Sandeman engineered you with no junk DNA, then it's possible. My question then is, where did he get the prophecy from?"

"What prophesy?" Max asked, feeling a headache starting to form behind her eyes.

"Well, I've translated my runes and it's basically about the end of the world." Sam replied. Shrugged at Max's stare of disbelief and glared at Dean when he quietly snorted.

"Stop." Max uncrossed her arms and held her palms out towards Sam. "You don't even know what mine say. I don't know what they say. Could be a freak'n recipe for peppermint bon-bons for all we know."

Sam paused for a moment looking thoughtful. Dean continued humming along with the song, but she had a feeling he was still tracking the conversation despite his seeming disinterest.

"You have a point." Sam finally conceded.

Max arched her eyebrow.

"Dean, can you have Bobby meet us somewhere instead of us going all the way to him? I'm thinking we really need to stop somewhere and compare our runes."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2021 2:20 a.m. Terminal City_

Mole was chomping on his cigar, watching with wariness as Pog and Krys approached the unknown anomaly. Rex was relaying commands via radio.

"When did this show up?" Mole snarled.

"Rex noticed it a few minutes ago when it started to glow." Dix responded.

"Glowing is never a good thing right?" Luke piped up. He'd been in Mole's office running over the reports for the morning crew.

"When, in our experience has a mysterious, glowing object turned out to be good?" Dix asked dryly.

Luke frowned at him.

"I was just asking. You never know." Luke muttered petulantly.

"Shut it." Mole said. "Rex, we've got them on video. Can they tell what it is?" Mole turned his gaze briefly over to look at Rex frowning at the handset.

"Yeah. They say it just looks like an old trunk." Rex turned his worried eyes to meet Mole's. "They said it stopped glowing when they approached it. It's just a trunk in a hole that didn't exist half-hour ago when the last patrol went by."

Mole's gaze turned thoughtful and he stubbed out the end of his cigar on the corner of the desk much to Dix's annoyance.

"Do you think it's a perimeter breach?" Luke asked worriedly.

"Nothing else has shown up on camera or been reported by patrols. Nobody even missed check-in." Rex replied with a shake of his head.

"We'd better be safe and raise the alert level. Pull patrols back to level two." Mole said straightening up.

"Do we need to grab Max for this?" Dix asked with a scowl at Mole, still irritated by the new burn on his desk.

"Rex, did she hop the fence?" Mole questioned while he reached in his jacket pocket for another cigar.

"No. She bugged back on over in the direction of her apartment. So she's either with Alec or sleeping."

Mole snorted and shook his head.

"Go ahead and grab Pretty Boy, we'll let him go get Max. She's been a right mood all week." Mole sucked in a deep breath, lighting the end of the cigar with a match. With a satisfied sigh he blew the smoke out back over them. Luke wrinkled his nose.

"Rex, you're with me. Dix contact Joshua and Gem, put them in Command with you until one of us reports back in. Luke, grab Alec." Mole slung his trusted shotgun over his shoulder and headed towards the door.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2009 8:16 p.m. Lincoln Nebraska. _

"So Sammy, what'd ya got?" Dean asked rubbing a hand over tired eyes. He was sitting at a small table in one of their typical run down hotel rooms. Sam was across from him, with papers, books and pictures of both sets of runes covering the open tabletop.

"Roughly translated, it goes something like this." Sam threw down the marker and rubbed his own hand across his eyes in exhaustion. He pushed a pad of paper covered in scribbles and Sam's slanted writing over to Dean.

Dean glanced over at Max who was slouched on the edge of a bed, her constant mini-pout on her face. She hadn't been happy that she'd had to get semi-naked for Sam to take the pictures. She'd flat out refused to allow Dean to do it. She'd turned all kinds of red and spluttered out about the Alec guy again.

Dean felt a smile tug at his lips. Kind of wished he knew who this mystery guy was that she kept bringing up. When he caught Max turning her glare on him, he coughed and cleared his throat. He dropped his gaze to the top page Sam had pushed over.

"The ones with the blood of the Serpent Lord; will lead the charge to a New World Order. The chaos will descend after the great Seals break, purging the unworthy-making of them servants to the Serpent and follower." Dean snorted. "Well that sounds cheery. So basically we've got people helping Lilith break the Seals, and Lucifer will walk." Dean tossed the pad back down on the table.

Sam just nodded.

"Awesome. Sounds familiar. Anything else college boy?"

Sam rolled his eyes before he grabbed the pictures of Max's runes off the table.

"Yeah. Hers say the same thing as mine."

Dean scoffed and opened his mouth but Sam cut him off.

"Except for the ones on her back."

"What are you talking about?" Max sat up straight, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "Logan said they're the same as the ones on my arms and stomach!" There was irritated disbelief in her voice and it caused Sam to frown at her.

He waved her over to the table in response, pulling a particular picture out of the stack. Dean moved over an inch or so, enough to let her peer around his arm at the photo.

"They only look the same. Essentially, it does say the same thing. Except for these." He jabbed his finger to a break in the line.

"Um, Sammy? You wanna tell me exactly what we're looking at then?" Dean asked with a furrow appearing between his brows.

"After every third word in the whole series there's another character." Sam huffed out.

"Yeah, but how does that matter? It's gibberish." Max retorted shifting her weight back to her heels and crossing her arms in irritation.

"It's not." Sam snapped at her. When her face deepened to a scowl he took a deep calming breath. "Everything is purposeful, it's not random. I have the prophecy because of the demon blood, but yours was written into your DNA. Sandeman wanted you to have the whole story."

Sam leaned forward in his chair and looked intently at Max's face.

"In the hunting world, you don't discount something just because it doesn't make sense. In fact, I think those characters complete the prophecy." Sam started arranging the pictures up in a line across the tabletop.

"Wait, you mean there's more to this ray of sunshine?" Dean scoffed, dragging a hand from the back of his head to scratch his ear. "Great. As if we haven't already faced enough End of the World crap."

Sam ignored Dean and focused his gaze back on Max. He pointed to the first picture he'd laid out, the one showing the complete set of Runes running across her entire back.

"Look, it's more than the fact that they're every third word. The Runes on your back run vertical, right?"

"Yeah. Sure. I guess." Max grumbled. She leaned forward again, pressing her palms into the edge of the table.

"And if you read those characters the way you read the rest, it remains gibberish. But, -" Sam paused to direct their attention to the next picture a close up of the Runes running across the tops of her shoulders. He snatched a marker from Dean's hand ("Hey!") and started underling the extra characters. "Read ONLY the third characters horizontally and you get the hidden passage."

Max blinked at him stupidly for a moment. Was it really that simple? They'd been pouring over the Runes for almost two months…and it was really that god damn simple? Dix had figured out how the sentences were arranged, but he and Logan had been unable to crack what the individual runes meant. She shook her head in disbelief. Guess Alec was right. Sometimes she and Logan couldn't see the forest for the trees.

"What does the rest of it say?" She asked a furrow appearing between her brows. Sam held out another sheet of paper to her, but he began reciting it aloud for Dean's benefit.

"The Chosen step from the darkness; Sparking the fire and chaos-they can seal the door. If the Tempter raises-only a lamb to turn him back."

They were all quiet for a moment, and Max shook her head.

"So is that part of the original prophecy, or is it something else? Because it almost sounds like it's trying to tell us how to stop it. And no offense Sam, but I get the feeling that Demons are major bad mojo, and wouldn't be about that at all."

Dean turned his head to look at her and nodded.

"She's got a point Sam. How do we know that we can trust what her's say?"

Sam scowled at the pair of them before crossing his arms across his chest in annoyance.

"There's always the possibility that it's not right but I have a theory and I'm pretty sure I'm correct."

"Well, then let's hear it smarty-pants. Stop with the puppy eyes already." Dean muttered walking over to the vacant bed and collapsing onto the edge. "We haven't got all night."

Sam glared at Dean and chucked a pen at him. Smiled when it hit his brother in the middle of his forehead. Dean's expression promised retribution but Sam ignored it turning back to Max who was quickly loosing patience with the both of them.

"So I think we can safely assume that this breeding cult of yours is probably deeply connected with demonic influence."

"Why do you say that?" Max asked settling into Dean's vacated chair.

"Well," Sam started scratching the back of his head. "The ingestion, or infection of the snakes blood. Dark magick, demonic magick is based in blood ritual. They probably started out before the Dark ages, with witches turning into 'priestess'."

"Poor bunnies. I frigg'n hate witches." Dean grumbled to himself, frowning. When Sam didn't continue he looked over at them staring at him in silence. "What?" He said defensively. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. The rabbit always gets the raw end of the deal."

"Seriously, sometimes I wonder if you're-" Sam started before he jumped when Max smacked her hand on the table.

"Enough about the stupid rabbits! You were telling me about your theory Sam." She shot a quelling look over at Dean who rolled his eyes but shut his mouth.

"Right." Sam coughed to clear his throat before continuing. "So they've got centuries of blood rituals and from what I can gather, selective breeding?" He looked at her to verify this. Max shrugged.

"That's what Logan and Dix have dug up so far. I guess they're really secretive though."

"Okay, that's just gross." Dean made a face and Max nodded her agreement.

"But what's really telling," Sam continued ignoring his brother's commentary "Is that they seem to be impervious to pain, and match you in strength…which is not something a normal human possesses correct?"

"Right." Max said flatly. Normal. That wasn't her at all.

"Wait. No pain and super strength? Sounds kinda like someone possessed." Dean said meeting Sam's eyes. "Are you saying that these freaks are trying to breed a demon into flesh and blood?" He asked horrified.

"I don't know for sure. Or even if they're at a point where this can be accomplished…but it does make you wonder." Sam quickly got to his feet and began to pace. "That may be their ultimate goal, although I doubt they really know what they'll be getting. Stupid idiots probably think they'll be born like gods."

Max could feel her stomach roll with nausea.

"What's really going to happen to them?" Max asked, looking back and forth between the brothers. Sam paused to look at the floor a dark look crossing his even features.

"My guess? An ultimate blood sacrifice, or an army of easily assimilated hosts. I can't say for sure until we get into see the ritual being preformed." Sam started pacing again.

"But, according to your friend Joshua this Sandeman guy…he was once a part of the cult?"

"It looks like it, yeah. Josh swears that he was a good guy, that he left Manticore, loved him...but I can't say for sure." Max said shrugging.

"Then I think it's safe to assume that he possibly found the prophecy, understood its true meaning and-"

"And what? Thought up a quick fix? Sam that doesn't seem very likely." Dean snorted.

"No-" Sam interrupted. "He might've found another groups version of the prophecy, or maybe it was always complete." He shrugged. "But the point is that he clearly engineered Max to have the Runes start appearing on her as they would any of the potentials. The difference is, that he gave her the means to stop it."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2021. 2:32 a.m. Terminal City_

Pog and Krys were waiting for them when they approached from the north of Command, Mole having stopped to upgrade his shotgun to a grenade launcher. Rex personally thought it was overkill, but given all the other shit they'd faced...maybe not.

"Krys, anything pinging your radar?"

Krys was an X-4 who, like Josh had more dog in his cocktail as opposed to the cat in the X-5 series. He was stocky and barrel-chested. Krys indicated with his head for them to begin following him.

"No sir. When I arrived the light had begun to fade. All I smell is dirt, damp and some of the remnant chemicals left over from the toxic dump. No drugs or acellerants." Krys spoke carefully, leading the way over to the hole in the ground.

"Do we have any idea where the source of the light came from?" Rex asked crouching down to peer in the hole. Like the guys had reported it was just an old metal trunk. There were leather straps belted across the top.

"No. But we've been trying to make out what's all those symbols might mean." Pog spoke up. He was tall, fair haired and whipcord thin. Pog reached down and brushed some of the dirt off a corner. The metal was a dark green and had a few rust spots, but what Pog touched with the tip of his finger was a faded white symbol of a pentagram.

"So, what? We're all worked up over an old time capsule left by some devil worshiping ordinary?" Mole spat out looking entirely too disappointed that there wasn't anything to shoot.

"Only one way to find out." Rex said a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He slapped the side of the truck with a dull thud. There was something inside. "Open her up."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 31th, 2009 12:10 a.m. Lincoln Nebraska_

Bobby Singer was an older gruff man, who carried himself with seemingly undue caution. He squinted a lot at her, as if he was still wondering whether or not he should trust her.

Max rolled her shoulders under his unsettling gaze and turned back to Dean.

Turns out the Winchester's had received some advice from their psychic and already had a plan in place to stop the end of the world when she'd shown up like celestial luggage dumped on their doorstep. Her runes had just cemented their plan.

Bobby let the door slam behind him as he went back outside to get more spare parts for the boys. Max winced a little.

"Don't let Bobby bother you. He's just a mite over protective. We've had some bad luck with pretty girls claiming to help us lately." Dean said a little too casually while Sam squirmed.

Seems like she wasn't the only one who'd glossed over some of their past. She hadn't mentioned Ben; they weren't mentioning this mystery girl. Max let it go, and sat next to Dean on the bed.

He arched an amused eyebrow at her before he pointed with his chin to pile of wires on the table they'd pulled between the beds.

"Hand those to me, would ya?"

Max grabbed them and deposited them next to his right elbow.

"Thanks."

Silence reigned for a few more minutes while the boys worked attaching wires and pieces of metal. Eventually she noticed that though Dean was working as quickly and as diligently as his brother was he'd turn his gaze on her every few minutes.

"What?" She asked in feigned annoyance. His concerned gaze really didn't bother her as much as it should've.

"I don't really do the whole talk about your feelings crap, that's more Samantha's thing-" Dean ignored Sam's fierce glare, "But you look like something's bugging you."

"Maybe the fact that the world's about to end and I'm stuck here with you losers?" Max snapped shifting uncomfortably.

Dean just rolled his eyes.

"Nah. You look like the kind of girl who's used to stressful situations. Something else is bugging you. But whatever. You don't wanna spill, I'm not gonna push you. This ain't the Brady Bunch." Dean said shrugging and focusing his attention back onto their project.

_The Brady Bunch?_

Max wasn't sure what that meant so she sat there scowling, stubbornly refusing to give in to the urge to talk to Dean like he was Alec. Because he _wasn't_ Alec. She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned back enough to put him in profile.

Like with Ben, the resemblances between Dean and Alec were uncanny. Same hair, albeit shorter, the same hazel green eyes. They had a similar build, though if Dean was any indication; Alec was only going to get more handsome, more filled out with age. Max felt a little shiver race down her spine, making her heart thud harder.

Max shook her head to clear it, ignoring Sam's curious expression.

Dean was a little more world-weary than Alec, with lines around his eyes that told her he was older. There were times when he seemed distracted from the happy-go-lucky attitude she'd come to associate with Alec. She'd catch him brooding off into the distance. That was, if Max wanted to be totally honest, really more her type of behavior than Alec's. Max rolled her shoulders again uncomfortably. Well, mostly. She shook thoughts of Berrisford out of her head.

It was just too weird. She'd already allowed herself the concession of sitting next to Dean, the little bit of familiar soothing her jangled nerves. She really wished she could talk to OC, Logan, Josh or even the real Alec.

But no. Because fate was a bitch, she had Sam and Dean Winchester.

"I just can't believe I'm going to be part of the whack-job group that sets off the pulse."

Dean turned his face towards her, a triumphant and smug look etched there. He somehow reigned in the I-told-you-so and stood up to start wrapping the thick cord of copper wire over the top of the electronic magnet they were constructing.

"Beggars can't be choosers Max. Unfortunately we don't have the time to come up with a better option." Dean grunted.

Sam threw his own length of copper wire over to Dean's side.

"I always wondered why of all things, they set off an electro-magnetic pulse." Max snorted. "I mean strategy wise it's not the best plan. Yeah it set us back financially and economically…but it only messed with the rest of the world's economy too. Major Suckage all around. Guess I have you guys to thank for havin' to boil my water on the stove for a bath."

Dean shook his head and reached for a pair of heavy pliers. He had a ghost of a half-smile on his face.

"I'm just glad Sam and I here are used to living the Spartan existence." Clamping down on one end of the thick wire with the pliers he began twisting his ends together with Sam's.

"It just seems that every time my life starts getting somewhere close to normal, shit like this happens." Max grumbled slouching forward to rest her elbows on the table, watching Dean grunt and strain to make the ends meet.

"Ha!" Sam chortled out. "You're definitely hanging out with the right people then. Seems like every other week we have to deal with some other life altering event."

"Yeah, yeah. Life sucks. We know emo boy. I can tell what kind of day it's gonna be by the state of your bangs." Sam's grin flipped into a scowl, which Dean ignored. "Wanna give me a hand here Sam?" Dean panted out. He had succeeded in bringing two wires together, but now they were even more difficult to maneuver.

"Need some help?" Max asked. She arched an eyebrow, wondering if he'd go all macho on her. Dean turned to look at her for a long moment an assessing look in his eyes.

"Have at it, sweetheart." He moved back, allowing her to step in towards it. Max scowled at him.

"Don't call me that." Max grabbed the discarded pliers and clamped onto the wires. "They all need to go together?" She asked Dean. When he nodded she calmly bent her wrist clockwise and with a soft groan the wires twisted together.

"Huh." Dean said. "That's a pretty handy skill you got there sweeth-I mean Max." Dean had apparently thought better of angering her after her easy display of strength. When he dropped the nickname Max smiled brightly at him.

"Well, this gig sucks mostly but it does have a few perks."

"Uh-huh." Dean said then gestured towards Sam. "You wanna help Sam along too? I'll check and see what's taking Bobby so long."

Max shrugged and moved over towards the younger Winchester.

"Sure."

Dean wiped his palms down his jeans and strode towards the door. He was almost outside before he could help himself. He had to do it.

"No hanky-panky while I'm gone, okay kids?" Dean laughed and ducked out the door to avoid the notebook and pen they'd chucked after him.

Max was as much fun to rile up as Sammy.

Dean squinted around the empty parking lot to see Bobby was sitting quietly on the open tailgate of one of his tow trucks.

"Bobby?" He made his way over to the man he'd often thought of as a father. "Need a hand with anything?" He made to grab the last box of supplies when Bobby's hand descended to clamp onto his forearm.

"Dean, -" Bobby started voice both soft and gruff at the same time.

"What is it Bobby?" Dean was concerned. There were only a couple of times when the older hunter had used that tone with the boys and it never meant good things.

"How much to you boys actually know about this prophecy?"

Dean blinked at Bobby a little in surprise.

"You confirmed the prophecy's legit. Wasn't there another attempt back before I was born?"

"According to rumor, yeah. I know that it's the real deal that's popping up on Sam. It's the girl I'm worried about."

"Max? Bobby, she isn't exactly Ruby."

"It's a little convenient that she's shown up at the eleventh hour though, isn't it? I mean, when has our luck ever been that good?"

Dean shrugged nonchalantly knowing Bobby was right.

"Never."

"Exactly. Now, I'm hoping we all make it out of this goddamned mess alive but if we don't…" Bobby trailed off.

"What?"

"I think we need a little insurance. I've called an old friend to meet me out here."

"Who?"

"A hunter who owes me a favor. I think we need to take some precautions."

"What kind of precautions?" Dean's green eyes narrowed and he stood back, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I'm thinking we need to leave a message for someone, in case they need to…finish what we're start'n today."

"Like who?" Dean asked frustration building.

"Me."

Both men whirled to face Max, standing in the now open doorway of their motel room.

"Isn't that what you were going to say Bobby?" Max started forward, moving to meet them halfway.

"Girl,"

"Don't patronize me. I'm not some little girl who can't take care of business. I guessed a while ago that Castiel brought me back so I could learn something from you guys. More than what my runes are about, because sooner or later we would've cracked them." Max crossed her own arms over her chest, mirroring Dean. She tilted her head to the side, curiosity piquing there.

"But then, you already knew that I wouldn't be around for long…didn't you?"

"Bobby, just what in the hell is going on here?" Dean ground out, frustration sparking in his eyes. He hated it when the people he loved and trusted kept secrets from him.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_May 30th, 2021. 2:45 a.m. Terminal City_

They'd cut the straps off of the box and removed the lock on the thick chain with a large set of bolt cutters. Pog was wiping dirt off of his face and prodding the corner with his toe.

"Will ya quit that?" Mole snarled poking his cigar in the thin X-5's direction. "Just cause Krys doesn't smell nothin' doesn't mean that it still couldn't be booby-trapped and I ain't gett'n blown up thanks to your dumb ass."

Pog yanked his foot back quickly looking surprised. Mole rolled his eyes. For a seasoned solider Pog could be pretty dense. He turned back to face the rest of the group. "Okay, so the rest of you grunts get back incase it's something unpleasant." Took a deep drag from his cigar, filling his lungs before he continued. "Krys, you and me are the only ones that are gonna open it."

Krys nodded his agreement and he moved forward as the rest of them fell back to the building. They stepped down into the small hole together, each on one side of the trunk.

"Hey!" Mole called out turning back to face the group. "Someone wanna take this?" He held out the grenade launcher. Rex darted forward to grab it. "Don't set it off." Mole warned sternly. Rex rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Mole wasn't much moved by the implied insult.

"I mean it smartass. That's a fine piece of equipment and it wasn't easy to come by." Mole turned back to Krys and when he nodded that he to was ready, Mole reached out to grab his side of the trunk's lid.

"On three?" Krys asked meeting the lizard's eyes. Mole grunted.

"One, Two, Three!"

The top was rusted closed but it still wasn't a match for transgenic strength. With a loud squeal the metal ripped apart. It took Mole a second to realize he hadn't been blown up. That he and Krys were both standing there, holding their breath. Krys let out a nervous chuckle.  
"Well, guess I was right. Nothing in there to blow us up."

Mole just shrugged and crouched down to lift the thin white cloth that was covering whatever lay inside the trunk.

"Hey guys it's open." Krys called out. Pog and Rex quickly stepped back to the hole's edge.

"So? What's in it?" Rex asked leaning to peer over Mole's shoulder.

"Trouble." Mole said. "Rex, you wanna get an ETA on Alec? Maybe somebody'd better grab Max too."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_June 1st, 2009 10:30 a.m. Topeka Kansas_

The girl couldn't be more than sixteen. She had thick honey blonde hair that was plastered to the left side of her head, tacky with blood. Her eyes were closed, skin deathly pale. Only the shallow rise and fall of her chest told Max that she was in fact still breathing.

"Are we too late?" Sam asked, stricken.

Max shook her head and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "No, she's still breathing." Relief spilled across his features. Dean nudged them both with a sharp look.

Here, Dean reminded her a little of Alec on a job. He didn't seem anymore serious…making cracks at Sam's expense despite the overhanging gloom of the end of the world- until they found the girl. Then he was all military efficiency.

That had surprised her a little. She didn't know exactly what she'd been expecting…but she was finding more and more common ground with the Winchesters. Sam and Dean had the feel of a unit that'd served together for a long time. They communicated with looks and gestures, keeping their voices to a minimum.

Dean nudged her again with his elbow and Max turned her head to look at him. He used simple hand gestures to indicate that he was going to get closer, and plant the giant magnet they'd constructed. Max frowned; ready to protest when Sam settled a large hand on her shoulder. He nodded briskly at his brother and gently tugged Max toward him.

Max whirled to face him, shoving his hand off of her in irritation. Sam held his hands out in a posture of acquisition and jerked his head to the side.

Right. The girl. Sam and Max were going to try and get to the girl while Dean planted the Pulse. Of course Dean insisted on doing the most dangerous job because he wouldn't risk Sam. So he was going to sneak the damned heavy thing right over by the altar.

The girl was leaning against a west facing wall, her hands and feet bound tight. Max didn't like the idea of separating, even to rescue the girl and plant the device. The thoughts made something cold and hard settle in her belly. Max tried to brush the fear away.

She was still trying to shake the feeling that she needed to follow Alec to make sure his sorry ass stayed out of trouble. She was with Dean, not Alec. She wasn't responsible for his safety…though she was pretty sure she'd developed some affection for the handsome brothers in the last 48 hours.

With Bobby's help they had pinpointed the location of the final seal. They'd arrived to find that whatever ceremony the baddies had needed to do was already in progress. Besides the unconscious girl the room was filled with about ten other men. They were in a warehouse close to downtown, and the closer they got to the action the more likely it was that they would be discovered.

Max closed her fingers over the cool metal of the necklace the brothers had given her. There were heavy charms hanging from the thick thread that were meant to prevent demonic possession. She couldn't help the unconscious shudder that rippled through her at the thought of that perverse invasion. It was something she had no desire to witness, much less experience.

Leaving one hand protectively over the charms she slipped her other hand into the pocket of her leather jacket. The hex bag felt wrong, but according to the boys it would prevent any demons in the vicinity from immediately sensing their presence. It was hard for her to put faith in these flimsy protections, but the brothers swore by them.

Max spared one last glance at Dean, slinking away best that he could with the large magnet in his arms. She forced herself to turn away and follow Sam who was slipping away into the shadows in the opposite direction as his brother.

Sam had dropped to his belly and was using his elbows and toes to quietly move himself along the floor, beneath the sight of the men. Max fluidly followed him, deftly avoiding the storage crates that were stacked throughout the room. They stopped about 15 feet away from the girl.

Max pressed closer to Sam, peering over his bulky shoulders to assess the room. The men weren't overly worried about being interrupted that much was clear. There were only about three within any sort of distance to intercept them. The rest seemed to be watching an open doorway behind the altar.

_Shit._

She shared a worried look with Sam. That didn't make the odds good for Dean. The hex bags might prevent Demons from sensing them, but good old-fashioned human eyesight was still in play. Max bit her lip before leaning in to whisper in Sam's ear.

"Which is more important? The girl or the pulse?"

Sam mimicked her movements, hot breath washing over her neck.

"Lilith needs to the girl's blood to break the seal. Someone of faith. The pulse should hopefully stop Lucifer from rising should we-" Max felt Sam shudder against her. "Should we fail."

Max nodded. If they failed. She had a sneaking suspicion they might. There were too many things working against them. Yes, if they could get the girl away they had a chance. But first they had to get her away from a group of men who were probably Familiars. Max swallowed heavily. That wasn't even factoring in Lilith.

Max gripped Sam's elbow when her transgenic eyesight picked up movement in the dim open doorway behind the altar. She inclined her head towards the altar.

"Someone's coming." She whispered.

A tall woman moved into the light. She had something painted on her skin that gave her a dark, scaly look. Ice skated down Max's spine. With her baldhead, dark marks on her skin…she resembled a snake. She must be the priestess. She raised her hands, shaking back the long red sleeves of her robes.

The room went deadly quiet, the murmur of the men fading away.

"It's time." The priestess's voice was deep and gravely. It seemed to be what the men were waiting for. While the priestess began to intone in an unknown tongue the men dropped to their knees in supplication.

Two of the ones nearest them moved over to grab the girl. Max started forward, but Sam put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait."

"Why?" Max asked urgently looking at the girl's head lolling on the man's arm.

"Where's Lilith?" Sam sounded suspicious and worried. It made Max pause.

"Hello Sammy. I've been waiting for you."

Max could feel the blood rush from her face as Sam stiffened and whirled up into a crouch.

"Lilith!" Sam hissed. Max rose to her knees, blood curdling when she saw the Demon standing before them casually tossing a hex bag up and down in the palm of her hand.

"Looking for this?"

"What did you do with him!" Sam snarled coming up to his feet. The chanting got louder and Max turned her head enough to see that the girl was being bound to the alter. But she didn't dare take her eyes off the Demon's host. Every instinct screamed at her not to turn her back on another predator.

"Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head about Dean. I've been missing him ever so much. We had such fun together, he and I." A slow, evil smirk slid across Lilith's face. She inhabited the body of a girl about Max's age, and it seemed to be a form Sam recognized. Lilith caught the hex bag one last time before slipping it into the pocket of a tan leather jacket.

Lilith tossed long blonde hair over her shoulder and nodded back towards the altar. Dean was being drug forward by a pair of men they hadn't noticed earlier. He was shaking his head, as if to try and clear it.

"Dean!" Sam called. Dean's head automatically turned in their direction. He looked pissed.

"I wouldn't dream of hurting our precious Dean."

Max didn't like the way Lilith cooed his name. Max came to her feet scowling. This seemed to finally draw Lilith's attention to her.

"Who is this? Now, now Sam." She tsked Sam like he was an errant schoolboy. "What would Ruby say? I think she might get a little jealous."

Sam snarled and made to move forward menacingly.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Lilith shook her finger at him. "I don't want to have to hurt Dean unnecessarily Sam." They followed her gaze to see that the priestess had a large knife held out towards Dean's vulnerable throat.

Sam froze, shaking in fury as he gazed at Lilith. The look on his face scared Max a little. She thought even a demon might waver under the force of that glare. A sudden scream had her ripping her gaze back to the altar.

The girl was awake and resisting her bonds.

"Oh my god! Someone help me!"

Lilith cocked her head to the side, smiling impishly at them.

"That's my cue. It's been nice Sammy. I'll be sure to make you my special pet when He comes." With a flick of her hand Sam flew back into the wall. Max merely staggered back a few feet. Lilith turned suspicious eyes on her.

"Huh. You're different, aren't you?"

Max just glowered at her and started forward. If Lilith's powers didn't affect her the same way they did Sam…maybe she could just kill the bitch and be done with it. Lilith seemed to read the intent in her face and danced backwards towards the kneeling men.

"Stop her."

Five of the men rose to their feet and turned to face her. Max assessed their movements and guessed that only two of them were actual, full-blown Familiars.

"Stupid animals," one of them growled starting towards her with hands outstretched.

"Aw, and I thought you'd save the poetry for the second date." Max simpered. Lilith gave her a little wave and started strolling towards the altar.

Max feigned left, but actually used the movement to drop below the Familiar's swing. She pushed upwards, using the back of her skull to slam under his chin. The Familiar staggered back and Max saw that in addition to dislocating his jaw, he'd taken a chunk out of his tongue. He snarled at her, blood dripping from his lips. Max made a disgusted face. Well at least it would shut him up. He made a wet, gurgling roar and rushed towards her hands extended in claws. Guess she'd managed to piss him off.

She settled her weight into her back leg, and when he was almost on her she spun in a tight circle catching his left temple with the heel of her right foot. He went down with a loud thud and lay still. Max, satisfied that he wouldn't be getting up for a very long time turned to face the rest of the room.

Sam had struggled to his feet and was currently engaged in some hand to hand of his own with a few more of the men. He used a piece of broken wood to put one down. Max felt a prickle race down her spine and on instinct she dropped to her knee in a leg sweep behind her. Another advisory crashed to the cement floor. She used her hand to chop his artery, cutting off blood flow to one side of his brain. He gasped and clutched at his neck. A snarl and a thud drew her eyes again to the altar.

Dean was across the room from her, nearest the hidden electro-magnet. Sweat was pouring down his face and mixing with blood running down from his ear. He was in the middle of a wicked knife fight with the priestess, and looked like the bitch was a full-fledged member of the cult, immunity to pain and all. Her curved smile was vicious and only grew when the young girl bound to the altar screamed in terror as Lilith approached her with a large ceremonial knife.

Max's first instinct was to go to Dean, even though the girl clearly needed her more. But it was almost ingrained in her, unconsciously moving towards him. She stilled realized what she was doing when the girl screamed again. Shaking the urge off Max charged over to the stone altar. Dean was better equipped than most ordinaries to handle a Familiar. They couldn't let Lilith kill the girl, or the seal would break.

Another Familiar thug staggered into her path. Apparently Sam hadn't hit him hard enough. Max let out a fierce growl and plowed into his mid section. They landed amongst some of the wooden crates.

"SAMMY!!"

Max scrambled to her feet and turned to see that Sam had reached Lilith and the girl at the altar. Dean was pushing back against the priestess who was trying to slice her knife across his neck. But Dean's eye's kept going back to his brother.

"Sam!" Dean cried. The closer Max looked she could see that Lilith and Sam seemed to be in some sort of mental combat. Their faces shone with sweat and they held palms out toward each other, menace clear in their gaze. Another scream shook her and she blurred to the altar avoiding more of the Familiars. The girl turned terrified eyes on her, and burst out another sob.

"Please, you gotta help me!"

"Just hang on a sec, okay? I'm gonna get you outta here." Max saw that she was bound hands and feet with thick rope. It would be faster if she could cut her lose…Max glanced around frantically. _There_! The knife that Lilith had intended to use was lying next to the altar on the floor. Max scooped it up and began frantically cutting through the girl's bounds.

"Hurry!" The girl shrieked looking terrifyingly at the priestess who'd clobbered Dean over the head. He'd collapsed at her feet and was scrambling backwards. She raised her arm above her head with a triumphant cry. Max twisted on her feet and let the knife fly. It landed solidly in the middle of her chest.

The priestess let out a wail and turned furious gaze on Max. Stupidly she wrenched it out of her chest with a sucking sound.

"Bitch!" The priestess snarled and took a menacing step towards her; twin knifes gripped in her fists. "You'll pay for that!"

"I don't think so." Max said and watched as the priestess's face blanched and she fell to her knees. "Help me!" Max barked at Dean who was shaking his head as if trying to clear it. Dean snatched the clean knife from the dead priestess's hand and hurried to the altar. He began frantically sawing at the rope around the girl's feet. Max had managed to finally free the girl's hands. She sat up and clutched at Max sobbing.

The building began shaking, and pieces of plaster rained down from above.

"What the hell's going on?!" Max turned to Dean who had a mask of blood covering half of his face.

"It's Lilith and Sam! They'll bring the whole place down around us if we don't stop her!"

"What are you talking about?" Max yelled and Dean pointed frantically at the pair standing in the middle of the room, dead Familiar's circling them. There was a faint glow illuminating the pair and it seemed as if a phantom wind was stirring by their feet.

Max gripped the girl by the arms and forced her back.

"You gotta run, okay? You run out that door and you don't stop until you're safe, do you understand?" Max shook the girl when she just stared stupidly at her.

"But-but what if they come back!"

"Go!" Max roared and shoved the girl in the direction of door. When she nearly stumbled over a body she screamed and finally scrambled towards the door. "What do we do-" Max started turning to face Dean, only to find open air. "Dean?"

"Sam!" Dean called out but there was something wrong with his voice. Max started towards the pair, much like Dean had done only to fall still. There…was something wrong with Sam's eyes…

Lilith let out a cackle and threw her hand out to the side sending Dean flying back into the wall behind the altar.

"Dean!" Sam cried, turning his black gaze on his brother. Max took a step back.

"You bitch!"

"Aw, Sammy…don't be mad. I'll take really good care of Dean. Afterall, I don't think it's really fair he had to leave me so soon, do you?"

"No!" Sam roared and pushed forward, forcing Lilith back. She looked surprised but shook it away with another laugh.

"Yes! I'll decorate my room with his entrails! I'll bathe in his blood!" She shrieked insanely, cackling like mad. "And you can't stop me!"

"Watch me." Sam snarled and lunged forward and plunged a knife into her chest and clamped his hand over her mouth. She jerked in his arms a hellish light dancing over her, sparking out of her eyes before she slipped from Sam's grasp to lay lifelessly on the floor.

Everything was quiet for one long moment.

"Sam?" Dean stumbled around the altar.

"Dean." There was relief in his voice, but when he looked at them his gaze was still black. Dean gasped but continued to stagger forward. Sam frowned, and opened his mouth before the ground rolled like the deck of a ship. It threw them all to the ground.

"What's happening?!" Max shouted. "I thought stopping Lilith meant everything would be okay?"

Dean turned his stricken gaze on her. "We stopped her, but I-I don't know who he was inhabiting. Sam, could-could she have been?"

Sam's face paled and the blackness vanished from his gaze.

"Oh, god. I didn't even think. It was the dental hygienist but, -"

"But she could've been someone of faith." Dean finished quietly. "Shit."

The building rumbled again, and a fissure appeared in the floor where Lilith's body lay. Max's head swam. How could this be happening? Weren't they supposed to stop this from happening?

"The Pulse!" Max cried out suddenly. She turned and scrambled over where the giant magnetic lay. Ran her fingers over it until she found the primer switch. It let out a beep when she flipped it. "Thank god! We still have a charge!" She glanced back anxiously at the brothers.

Dean crawled toward her and ducked when another piece of the ceiling crumbled down. The whole building was shaking now, and stacks of crates where falling haplessly to the ground.

"Hurry." Sam begged glancing apprehensively at the growing fissure. Max nodded briskly and turned back to the Pulse. She only paused a moment before she thumped her fist down onto the engage button.

A high pitched noise came from the device and Max clamped her hands over her sensitive ears. Turned away and closed her eyes when a light flashed through the room.

A whole chunk of the ceiling fell into the fissure, which was still growing.

"No! I don't understand!" Sam cried out, turning a panicked look on them. Scrambled to Dean and grabbed his shoulder. "It should've stopped it!" Dean just turned weary eyes on him.

"I know, Sammy."

"Maybe she didn't do it right."

"Hey!" Max said. "I'm not an idiot!"

Sam ignored her and hurried over to her side.

"Let me see!" He shoved her over to the side. Max glared and moved back a few feet, pressing into the altar and turned worried eyes up to the collapsing roof.

"If you're going to pull some magic outta your ass, now would be a great time to do it." Max said dryly. A cold knot of fear was settling in her chest.

Sam flipped the primer again and nothing happened.

"No, no, no, no!" He said frantically.

"She did it right Sammy, the charge is dead." Dean said crawling towards the fissure. "There's only one way to stop Him from coming now."

"Dean, no!" Sam cried out.

Max made to move forward-to stop him and his damn foolishness when the fluttering of wings drew her attention to Castiel. The Angel had suddenly appeared next to her. He clamped his hand on her shoulder and Max felt a sick lurching in her stomach.

"It has to be me Sam. You know that." Dean said shaking his head sadly.

"Come." Castiel spoke to her, his back facing the destroyed room.

"No! I'm not done here!" Max begged. She knew that he was here to take her back. "I haven't helped them, isn't this what you brought me back to do!?" Although she knew it was fruitless, she tried to pry his hand off of her.

"I brought you back to observe, to learn. You have to _see_. Dean's role has been cast in this long before yours. He must do this."

"No!" Max shook her head furiously. "There must be another way, there has to be!"

Castiel gazed at her in pity, genuine sorrow etched into his features.

"There's not. Believe me, if there was…" But Castiel seemed unable to finish. Max could feel her body trembling from the force she was putting against him.

"DEAN!!" Sam's scream made the hair raise over her entire body. Sam was scrambling across the rubble falling from the ceiling. But she could already see that he would be too late.

Dean was kneeling over the slowly expanding black hole. The one the pulse had failed to plug. He gazed at Sam the whole time he lifted the heavy ceremonial knife in his hand.

"Sam, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's the only way. I love you Sammy." Dean choked out, a tear running down his cheek.

"No!!" Sam roared.

Max again threw herself forward in Castiel's grasp, but he held her there as Dean plunged the knife into his own heart with a pained gasp.

The floor shook and walls cracked-but all Max could see was Alec slumping forward, _dead_ as Castiel pulled her back into a bright white light.

................................................................................................................................................

_May 30th, 2021. 2:37 a.m. Terminal City. _

Max woke up gasping, tears running down her face.

_Dead. _

They were all dead. Her heart pounding frantically she sat up in bed.

It was her dilapidated apartment in T.C.

It must've worked, Dean's last attempt to re-seal the chasm.

Frantically she stumbled out of bed and looked around with a sense of disorientation.

She gasped, her eidetic memory flashing memories of Kansas into her eyelids.

_Dean._

_Sam._

_Bobby._

_Alec's face bloodied and bruised…Not Alec, can't be Alec…_

_Dean._

_Dead._

Max took a deep breath and shook her head. She rushed out her bedroom window onto the fire escape. She was aware that she wasn't wearing any shoes, could see her bare feet flash into her vision from time to time as she quickly descended the ladder to the dirty street below.

_Dead. _

But Max didn't care about her lack of shoes. Only one thing mattered.

Find Alec.

_Dead. Not dead. _

Max started running the minute her feet touched the ground, ignoring the strange looks she got from the occasional transgenic she passed. When she reached Alec's building, she jumped for the fire escape that led to his window. It creaked and groaned heavily, the rickety fire escape protesting her added weight. It swayed and she stumbled onto her hands and knees. Scrabbling to her feet she saw that some of the rusty screws were pulling loose from the mortar of the building.

_Ben's face. Dean's face. Alec's face._

_Dead. All Dead._

Reaching Alec's window, she threw her strength into her heft upwards, pulling the pane free of its cement of old paint and warped wood. It gave a sharp squeal and Max tumbled inside, slipping to the floor. Her eyes flew to Alec who'd sat up sharply in bed at her noisy entrance. His expression was disbelieving and dumbfounded.

_Alive._

It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

"Max?" He managed to stutter out before she was back on her feet with something like a sob escaping her throat.

"Alec!" She ran across the room and practically tackled him to the bed, grabbing and squeezing onto him tightly. She inhaled sharply, trying to confirm with all of her senses that he was here. That he was real.

_Alive._

"You're real, oh god you're really alive!" She sobbed into his neck.

"Maxie?" Alec couldn't help but blink at her. "What's wrong?" The loud crash and squeal of metal caused him to jump slightly in surprise. He flashed his eyes over to his window in time to see the upper part of the fire escape fall past and smash into the street below. Max continued to cling to him, muttering nonsense under her breath. Alec tightened his grip on her and snorted out a disbelieving laugh.

"Well. That's sure to wake the neighbors." He could already hear them opening their own windows to peer out at the disaster in the street. But Alec was focused on Max trembling in his arms.

"Max, what's wrong?"

She was quiet for a minute; eyes focused on something he couldn't see. He shook her gently trying to bring her back to him.

"Maxie…what is it?"

"I don't want you to die Alec."

"What are you talking about? I'm not gonna die."

"I don't care what the stupid prophecy says. I won't allow it! I won't!" Max looked into his confused face and gripped his chin in her hand. " You won't leave me, will you?"

Alec was caught in the fire burning in her brown eyes, fierce and unyielding. There was real terror in her gaze and Alec felt his heart stutter a little. He couldn't, _wouldn't _deny her. Alec nodded.

"Say it." She hissed at him, moving closer, probably bruising his arm where she'd clamped her fingers into his skin.

She was scaring him a little bit and he was getting that twitchy feeling again…like he was being watched.

"_Say it_."

"I'm not leaving Max. I'll never leave you." Alec was breathless.

As soon as the words left his mouth Max seemed to relax and she released his face and arm to lean heavily back into him. With a stuttering sigh she tucked her head under his chin.

"Good." She muttered softly.

Alec pulled her in more tightly and tried to calm his racing pulse. He didn't know what had spooked her so badly, but it had brought her to him in the middle of the night…so it couldn't be good.

Glancing down Alec felt his racing blood suddenly freeze in his veins. There, on her bare arms the runes that had appeared so suddenly months ago…were _moving_.

A knock came frantically at the door. It was Luke.

"Alec?! Are you okay?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

_June 1st, 2009. 9:00 p.m. Topeka Kansas. _

Deep in the rubble of the building-ceiling caved, flames flickering and bodies strewn, nothing stirred. The seal held. And while it was a New World order above…there would BE a world.

Rats were already moving amongst the carnage. Skittering over stone, blood. One stopped to sniff at a hand lying in a puddle of gore, but the touch of its whiskers caused the hand to twitch. A deep groan sounded from the darkness…

Hundreds of miles away a girl with short brown hair and a strange tattoo would start running again.

End.

_AN: Wow. Waaay longer than I thought it would be. I hope it made sense. I tried to answer the main questions…but I did leave some out with the purpose of revisiting in another story maybe…BUT there are no immediate plans to continue this story at this point in time. I have too many open projects as it is. Maybe when I close out a few other stories that I've promised…: - ) Thanks again to everyone for your patience in my getting this chapter out! You waited a long ass time. I can only hope you felt it was worth the wait! _


	10. Q

_So this is a little different for me, and please remember I don't have a ton of medical experience. I tried to keep everything within a realm of possibility…I hope you enjoy. Oh, p.s. I don't own Dark Angel. Oh but to have Alec all quarantined to myself…_

**Quarantine**

"I think that we've determined the problem Colonel."

Lydecker turned to face Nurse Jorgenson, a severe woman in her thirties with an air about her that spoke of her extensive career in the military. She glanced at the pane of inch thick bulletproof glass separating them from their multiple subjects. All three transgenics were segregated into adjoining rooms.

"You've determined the cause of the abnormal behavior?" He asked voice tired and gravelly before he turned back to the middle subject. The original quarantined individual, the only female.

"Yes. Pheromones sir." Jorgenson handed over the results of extensive tests encased in a large manila envelope to Lydecker. He flipped open the file in interest.

"Pheromones? She's secreting them? That would make sense." He looked thoughtful and looked back into the center room. "Do we know what the trigger for the dump is?"

"Yes sir. As you noted when the subject was brought in, she was around 8 months pregnant. She is currently in labor."

Lydecker's eyes flicked back to Jorgenson before settling knowing eyes back on the female transgenic. X5-452 was clearly strapped into a bed made with titanium enforced steel bars. It was impossible for a single transgenic, strapped to the bed as she was to free herself alone.

However, around 1100 that was put to the test when two previously loyal transgenic drones, leftover from the scrap pile at Manticore went rouge. They had left their posts guarding her door and tried to free the X-5 who insisted that her name was Max.

Alarms had sounded and Lydecker had the room temporarily gassed and each transgenic retrieved and separated. Having extensive experience with transgenics he'd insisted it was not normal behavior and demanded they quarantine and test, rather than terminate. The X-4's in custody didn't have the independent brain structure-most were automatons after Renfro's brutal tactics. They'd locked down, and anyone entering the cells did so in a haz-mat suit.

Lydecker met Jorgenson's eyes before smiling grimly. "Yes I can see now. She's been keeping her contractions from us. How did we miss her water break?"

"Perhaps between the time of the room being gassed and sealed. It might've dried before we noticed. Tests aren't back yet on the sheets. A blood test was thought to be quicker." Lydecker hummed his approval. Now that she was watching for it, Jorgenson could see the slight trembling over the bulging stomach. She turned back to Colonel Lydecker.

"Your wish to be able to move further out of the Seattle area seems to have been granted sir. But I don't understand. Why is she hiding her labor from us?" She approached the glass to turn her own gaze into the sterile, white room. The X-5's gaze burned through her, a shudder following in the wake.

"Because Max is very clever Jorgenson. She knows the only reason we didn't have her bound on a plane out of state was because of her advanced pregnancy. She knows we won't take unnecessary risks before they're born." Lydecker smiled a little looking almost, for the moment like a proud grandfather. It caused a chill to race down her spine.

"However we're locked down because trying to transport her is dangerous. Her mate and her people are undoubtedly watching for any suspicious military activity. She would never go easy; we'd have to drug her, which we don't want. Our medical caravan would be too noticeable anyway. Once she gives birth I'll transport them all separately. Max is still playing escape and evade hoping to give 494 time to catch up." Lydecker reached over to the intercom box on the wall.

"You may as well stop with the act Max. We know you're in labor. I've taught you a little too well I think." Max did not respond in any way, just continued to glare at the unseen members in their room.

"We'll be able to transport them all soon. If she isn't crowning in the next hour, give her the labor inducing drugs to move things along. Double the guards as well." Jorgenson blinked at him in surprise.

"But sir, how would it be possible for them to find her? We're in a secure, little known facility. Even if they could find it, it would be suicide to attempt a takeover." The disbelief showed in her voice and it irritated Lydecker. Everyone always underestimated his kids.

"Because X-5's are very resourceful. The best. One X-5 is equal to four or five well trained advanced soldiers. They'd need only a handful to lead an assault on this location. And Max has a strange power over people. They will surprise you; the things individuals are willing to do for her. But onto a problem that can be dealt with now." He turned cool blue eyes on her face.

"You believe these pheromones are causing the unusual behavior in the X-series?"

"Yes sir." She cleared her throat before continuing. "Its very similar to the animal kingdom. Much like their heat, these pheromones trigger innate behaviors."

"For example?" Lydecker set down the folder and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Well I don't know the X-5's like you do…but I'd assume that X-5452 is considered an alpha and this may affect the potency of the hormones. They apparently begin when they go into labor. It pumps nearby X-series males with the urge to protect her."

Jorgenson looked thoughtful for a moment then continued. "I theorize they wouldn't be present if she was with her mate. But because she is alone her body is emitting the pheromones to protect herself and her young."

"Hmm…a fascinating theory. It makes me certain that we'll have to resort to drugs to move this along. If this is how Max's body reacts now, I rather think we don't want to see what effect it would have on 494."

Jorgenson visibly shuddered and her eyes widened. She nodded her agreement. It was time to get the babies and the safety of mankind away from certain destruction. As she walked out of the room she saw Lydecker turn, again towards X5-452. There was a hint of a smile on his face, and even though she shouldn't have been able to see them…X5-542 growled, low and fierce. It sent a shiver of primal fear down her spine.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Alec!"

Alec snapped his head in Luke's direction. The transhuman was panting as he rounded the corner towards TC's underground garage. His heart skipped a beat.

"Your walkie was dead! We've got a possible location on Max!"

Alec inadvertently stumbled, catching himself on his knees as his head swam. _Max_. Her face flashed before his eyes and it forced him to stand straight. He tossed his dead walkie towards Luke who was already throwing the fresh one at him.

Spinning on his heels he darted back down into the garage he'd just left. He'd been out with the patrols non-stop looking for TC's leader, his lover and mother to his unborn children. He'd only come back because he'd run out of gas and battery charge.

Alec nimbly leapt up unto the back of an open-air truck and tapped the top.

"Let's move out!"

"Alec, I thought you were gonna get some sleep?" Blitz, one of the X-5's who'd been helping coordinate the search asked.

"We've got a lead."

The room, which had been filled with defeated looking transgenics suddenly perked up and a flurry of motion, started vehicles rumbling and weapons cocking.

Alec let his eyes close for a moment, let the feeling of hope fill the emptiness in his chest. He'd hardly slept or ate since Lydecker had set the trap for Max and she'd fallen for it hook, line and sinker. He'd told her there was more to the meeting, that Lydecker would never take their decision to refuse his "protective custody". He couldn't wait to find her, hold her…and say 'I told you so'. Alec twisted his fresh walkie on and raised it to his lips.

"What do ya got for me Dix?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The pain was deepest agony; ripping through her midsection. Max was gasping and breathing harshly. Nurse Jorgeson approached her with a long, thick needle.

"Help me turn her!" She ground out. Two orderlies rushed forward to assist her with a struggling Max.

"Fuck you!" Max bellowed "You aren't putting anymore shit in me!" And even though she wanted nothing more than to curl into herself, she pulled viciously at her restraints.

"452, this is merely an epidermal. It will help you-"

"Don't you touch me!" Max snarled.

Lydecker appeared suddenly next to her face, calm and stoic.

"Max, you need to calm down. Your increased blood pressure isn't good for the babies."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't have increased blood pressure if you and nurse Frankenstein over here let me go! You don't have any right to keep me here! When Alec finds me, he's gonna tear you limb from limb!"

Lydecker tsked at her outburst.

"Max, as I've tried to explain to you-I have no desire to harm you or your children. But you are not safe with 494 and the rest of the transgenics. The Familiars want you dead because you can stop their plague. You and your children. I'm just trying to keep you safe." He reached out a hand to stroke her sweat soaked hair back on her forehead. Max twisted her head away from him.

"Don't you dare touch me!" Max snarled then let out a shriek when while Lydecker had her distracted Nurse Jorgeson had managed to inject her with the epidermal.

"Max, it really is for the best. One day you'll see that." Lydecker said looking down at her with his cool, impassive eyes. Eyes that she remembered and hated from her childhood. He'd turn those eyes on her and her siblings-hurt them then tell them it was for the best. They needed to know how long the X-5's could hold their breath, how quickly they healed, if the shakes were a malfunction of the brain.

"I swear Lydecker, by everything that's in me, I will see you dead for this."

Lydecker looked over at the orderlies. "Make sure her legs are secure or she'll kick your head in." He looked back at her intently for a moment before leaning close again speaking quietly near her ear. "494 will never find you Max, you forget how well I know all you kids. And you'll behave…or you'll never see your children again." He let that thought sink in before he pulled back out of reach of her snapping teeth. "Jorgenson," He paused and met the nurse's eyes. "Let's get this over with. I want to be moving by 1600."

"But sir, we can't guarantee that she'll have-"

"It doesn't matter." His eyes sparked heat at her. "Put her out and pull them out if you have to, but we need to be shut down and moving within the hour." Without waiting for a response he turned and left Max shrieking profanities at his stiff back.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Joshua rested a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently.

"Feel anything, Medium Fella?"

They were in a quiet area of the forest on the outskirts of Seattle. The area had been briefly searched, but Dix had picked up an increase in power in the area in the last 48 hours. It could be that they were getting ready to move Max.

Alec sighed.

"No." The search area was narrowed and he, like the others just knew it was the right area. But they couldn't pin point where. Alec growled in frustration.

"I still say we take the fight to the military. They'll give us all of 'Deck's squirrelly little hide outs if you just give me 20 minutes with them." Mole ground out, eyes darting around the thick landscape of trees.

"Mole, -" Alec sighed not ready for this conversation again.

Suddenly Joshua's head snapped up and he looked toward the bottom of mountain about 10K West of where they were headed. Alec turned sharp eyes on him. "Josh?"

"Little Fella." Joshua whispered and jumped off the moving truck. Alec took a deep gulp of air before he breathed out "Max." His eyes snapped open, focused and deadly. "I'm coming Maxie. Just hang on a little longer." He slapped his palm down on the roof before leaping after his friend.

"Hey! What in the hell?" Mole sputtered out watching as his two friends tore off at a sprint towards the base of the little mountain. He grasped his own walkie while waving at the X-6 driving to follow the path they were leaving behind. He took deep breath of his own before shaking his head. "X-5's." He muttered before barking into his walkie.

"We've got a trail, all units to me."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Come on, push 452! I know you don't want to but your baby will die from lack of oxygen if you don't!" Jorgeson called out from between her thighs. Max sobbed in terror. She couldn't wait anymore. She would have to push. "One, two, three, push!"

Max screamed as she pushed pouring all her frustration and anger into her cry. She collapsed backward panting when she felt the sweet release of pressure as her first child slipped from her. Tears sprung to her eyes moments later when she heard the sound of a baby crying.

She struggled to sit up, peering over the bulge of her stomach to see her baby.

"What is it?"

Nurse Jorgenson flashed her first real smile at Max. "It's a boy. Looks just fine and healthy." She lifted the boy swaddled in a blanket up for her to see. Max balked at the sight of his bluish skin.

"Are you sure? Is he supposed to be that color?" Max asked anxiously.

"Yes, all babies look this way." Jorgenson appeared to be ready to say something else when a loud boom shook the building. Within moments Lydecker appeared in the doorway, gun in hand.

"We need to go, now." He bit out grabbing Jorgenson by the arm and dragging her towards the opposite door.

"Wait, but what? She's not done-" She spluttered.

"No time!" Lydecker growled. "This one will have to do, we don't have time to move her!" As he pulled the confused Jorgenson after him Max's wail caught her.

"No! Where are you going! Bring me my son!"

Lydecker spun and gave Max a sad look. "Max, I'm sorry. I wanted to keep you all together, but it's just not meant to be." Then he jerked Jorgenson and the squalling child with him through the doorway only drowned out by Max's scream of rage.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Joshua had battered on the metal door until Mole had shoved them both aside and taken aim with his grenade launcher. The resounding boom and shook the whole side of the mountain they were perched on.

"Well, that'll get their attention." Blitz muttered running an anxious hand through his short red hair. He froze when the sound of a scream reached their sensitive ears.

"Max!!"

"Little Fella!!"

Joshua tore off the remains of the door and stopped dead when he and Alec pressed through the doorway. A wave of pheromones rolled out-speaking of Max's terror and fear. Alec threw himself into the first line of guards that appeared, snarling.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Max had never felt such blind, raging hate in her life. She struggled fresh against her restraints, not even seeing the orderlies turn and run from her in terror. She wanted Lydecker's throat beneath her claws, his blood to paint the walls, his head to crush under her foot. He took her child. He took her son. _From her_. He was gone. She couldn't chase him. Her throat raw- she let out her loudest bellow yet.

"ALEC!!"

Pushing and pulling at her restraints, not even noticing her bruised flesh bleeding she managed to dislocate her thumb and pull her hand through one of the restraints with a wail. And just as if she'd conjured him by sheer force of will he was there, in front her of her eyes. _Alec_. Alive, bloody and breathing.

He cupped her head in his hands relief staining his face. He was covered in blood as if he'd cut through a whole army of people to reach her.

"Max!" He choked out reaching for her other restraint.

"No!" She shoved at his hand and he startled staring at her. "He took him, Lydecker took him!" She pointed through the door Lydecker had disappeared through. "I want him back, Alec, now! My son! Lydecker took him!" Max broke into a sob but Alec was already gone, blurred through the doorway she'd pointed through.

"Little Fella!"

"Joshua!" Max sobbed as another contraction ripped through her mid-section.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Lydecker pulled her sharply left through the door, slamming it shut behind them.

"Go!" He roared pointing toward the exit for the helicopter. He shoved a desk over in front of the door, trying to wedge it. He was perspiring heavily and a panic she had never seen was etched into his face.

"I don't understand, why are we running?" Another loud boom shook the facility and Lydecker grabbed her arm in a bruising grip.

"He's here for her and we need to get out of here before we die."

"I-I don't understand." Jorgenson tried to shake the fog from her brain. Then she heard the terrified scream of one of the guards and picked up her feet. Just as she stumbled through the door leading out to helicopter pad she heard a monumental thud on the steel door Lydecker had barricaded. It was dented partially in, only the lock and hinges remaining in place. _What could do that?_ She couldn't make her brain work. It was all too much for her.

The she caught a glimpse of the murderous rage in the face of the man who was chasing him and Jorgenson froze. She was going to die. Lydecker slammed and locked the door and drug her to the helicopter pad shoving them into the back.

"Buckle up! I'm going to get us out of here, but I can't worry that you'll fall out!" Lydecker wrenched open the pilot's door when the thud sounded again, much, much closer. Jorgenson pulled the boy closer to her chest and started to panic.

She'd seen photos, Intel on transgenics, what they were capable when they were under control. If she was sure of one thing, this one was not. There was no quarantining this one, no gas or gun to stop him. She was going to die. Her vision started to narrow as her breathing started coming in panicked gulps.

Shots rang out and Lydecker screamed as he collapsed backward out of the pilot seat he was climbing into. He'd been hit in the legs, back and belly. It looked like a few had managed to slip beneath the edge of his bulletproof vest.

Jorgenson slowly turned her head towards the door and saw a gun being retracted. The steady sound of a body meeting the door reached her ears along with the sound of the door giving. Her eyes went back to Lydecker moaning on the pavement, blood pooling beneath him.

He couldn't help her. She could only help herself. She glanced down to the screaming child in her arms. Funny, but she hadn't heard him crying. It was then that she had a revelation, that as much as she believed in Lydecker's cause…she believed she wanted to live even more.

Resolved, she stepped out of the helicopter and turned to find herself face to face with then end of a gun. She gulped.

"Give him to me, _now_ or I swear I will introduce you to a world of pain you can't even begin to fathom!" The transgenic snarled and Jorgenson involuntarily jumped. "Now!"

Some deep buried instinct had her responding to the threat slowly, no sudden movements. She reached forward, extending her arms, hand cradling the infant's fragile head. The transgenic, eyed her suspiciously but moved forward to cradle the child to his chest, scooping the open arm around him. Jorgenson left her arms hanging open and empty in the air, trembling.

The transgenic looked toward Lydecker, eyes flicking and accessing trying to determine if there was still a hidden threat. Lydecker moaned in pain and turned his head, reaching out to them.

"494-Alec." Lydecker gasped. Alec took a swift step back putting more of Jorgenson between Lydecker and himself. "Alec, please I'm just trying to keep them safe."

"They're not yours to make safe, Deck. You had to know how this would end." Alec snarled, pulling his son closer to his chest. Lydecker just let out wheezy breaths. Belly wounds were one of the more painful ways to die.

The silence was broken only by the continued wails of the child in Alec's arms. Jorgenson stayed frozen terrified to move, draw attention back to herself. Then the strangest thing happened.

A deep rumbling sound came from the transgenic's chest and the child quieted. At first she thought it was a growl, that he was about to pounce and she would die…but then it reached into her brain that it was more like…well…a purr. She allowed her eyes to glance for the first time to the transgenic, Alec. He was gazing with such love and adoration down into the face of the child that she startled. When she jerked his eyes swung up to meet hers and they hardened.

"Run. Never come back here. If I ever so much as catch your scent ever again I'll kill you." Jorgenson nodded briefly everything in her believing him. She turned and ran for the edge of the helicopter pad and the line of trees beyond it. She had almost reached the safety of the trees when she flinched and dove down at the sound of another round of bullets firing. When pain didn't blossom she glanced back to see the shape of the transgenic turning away from where Lydecker's body would lay, back towards the entrance to the base. Back to Max.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Joshua placed the small bundle in her trembling arms. Max struggled to sit up and Josh helped her. Max couldn't help the quiet sobs coming out of her, but she furiously blinked away the tears out of her eyes. Alec WOULD get their child back. She had to believe it, trust him. He'd come for them, just as she knew he would. Their other child squalled in her arms and she pressed a finger pad to her child's cheek.

"It's okay. You're safe. Daddy'll be right back with your brother." Max carefully moved the shirt it was swaddled in to the side. It was a girl. She had a daughter. Max started crying fresh tears again, but this time they were happier. "She's beautiful, Joshua. Truly perfect."

"Littlest Fella..." The awe in his voice pulled her gaze away from her daughter to look into the face of the man who'd help save her, in so many ways. His face, which before had been just as enraged as Alec's to find her exhausted and bound, showed a vulnerability she'd never, never seen on his face. It was a startling contrast to the chaos surrounding them.

Max turned her exhausted eyes to the doorway and the other transgenics. There were two guards outside the room, hands twitchy on their guns. She wondered if her pheromones were still dumping, affecting those around her. There was a loud boom, and an ordinary solider was tossed past the doorway. A few moments later Mole stepped into the room with Blitz right behind him. Mole's face loosened very slightly at the sight of her.

"Good. You're not dead. I'd had to kill ya."

Max burst out into sobbing laughter again.

"Come on, let's get you outta this hell hole and back to the dump known as home."

Max swung her legs over the side of the bed, but froze.

"Alec?"

"Will be here soon. Joshua knows." Josh reached up and tapped his temple. "Time to get Max moving."

Max stood on wobbly legs, Joshua supporting her and her daughter with his arms. Joshua caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned his head to catch Alec slipping into the room, gun drawn and a squirming bundle in his arm.

Alec felt the last of the tightness in his chest loosen. She was okay, they were okay. As if she could sense his gaze her head whipped around towards him, drinking in the site of him safely tucking their son in the crook of his arm. As soon as he saw her, whole, he flicked the safety on the gun and tucked in the back of his jeans. Alec strode towards her scooping her into his chest with his now free arm.

"Alec!"

"Max."

Max brought her free hand up to cup their son's head. "Oh thank god" She wailed, fresh tears springing to her eyes. Alec made a sort of soothing, humming noise and she felt herself settling. He continued the sound as his own eyes eagerly drank in the site of his family together, whole, as it should be. He leaned down for a moment, brushing his lips over the tops of the twin's heads, feeling the softness of their skin and memorizing their scent.

Blitz and Joshua formed a kind of semi-circle around them, offering protection. Max shivered and leaned her head forward to rest on Alec's collarbone. She inhaled the smell of gunpowder mixed with the blood and quietly murmured. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"After what he did to you…I couldn't let him walk away Max. I'm sorry, but I couldn't."

She glanced up into his tired eyes and tilted her chin firmly up. "Good. I'm glad he's dead." Alec paused for a moment, studying her expression. He nodded curtly, shoulders loosening slightly in relief. He'd worried she would be angry with him for his actions. The relief he felt that she wasn't made his head swim.

"Come on you two, don't get all mushy on me now. We still gotta get you outta here. No doubt this little escapade will end up on White's radar and I didn't waste a bunch of grenades on ordinaries when I could've been lobbing them at White's ass. What a waste." Mole grumbled turning towards the door leading the way to the vehicles parked outside the hidden base entrance.

Alec and Max fell instep behind Mole, Joshua and Blitz taking up the rear. Max blinked furiously at the natural light just peeping through the trees. Alec guided her and helped her get into the truck without setting the twins down. He pulled her back into the corner, safe in the seclusion.

Max reclined back into Alec's chest, securely nestling the twins to her. He circled her with his arms, supporting her. Max watched Mole shake his head and slam the back of the truck door shut. His irritation was belayed by him barking at the driver to '_move over and let a professional handle it or they'd never reach their new home_.' The big softie.

Max let the silence sit for a few moments, only broken by Mole's half-hearted grumbles and Joshua's helpful hints about driving as Mole started the truck.

"Alec?"

"Mmmm?" Alec murmured from her hair where he'd kept his face buried.

"What are we going to name them?"

Alec peered over her shoulder at their quietly grunting children, squirming-clearly seeking food. He huffed out a sigh.

"Max, I know you love naming things, but I thought we decided that we'd decide when they were born."

Max scowled over her shoulder at him.

"In case you haven't noticed dummy, but they have been born!"

Alec let out a long-suffering sigh, like she was just being so taxing. Idiot.

"Max, I've been looking for you non-stop for two weeks. I've hardly slept, ate or bathed."

Max snorted. "I can see that." Alec ignored her.

"I was worried about finding you, not naming the little squirts. Can we maybe just, oh I don't know, take a minute together? Because you know names only leads to an argument with us and all I really want to do is hold you guys. Maybe take a short nap. Whadda say?"

Max let her mouth snap shut at his tired confession. He had a point. They were together now, and it would be nice to just sit there for a while longer, snuggled together before they had to work on the rest of reality.

"Okay. I guess." She grumbled out. "A nap probably wouldn't hurt. I don't do as well with names when I'm tired and I've been locked up."

Alec chuckled and she caught a hint of a self-satisfied smirk on his face. She couldn't help snapping at him for the look.

"I knew I should've named you Dick."

"Maxie, Maxie, I think you just like that name so much because it's your favorite part of me." He ticked a corner of his mouth up and drew a mock serious look on his face. "I also think we should talk about your use of language in front of our young, impressionable children."

Max let out an irritated huff of air.

"Whatever, you, you, pompous di-jerk!" She quickly amended. "I thought we were going to take a nap?" She pushed a little more forcefully back into his chest. "Stop making me grumpy."

"Oh, Max. That's a whole 'nother argument." He swooped his head down and nuzzled her neck. She slowly melted and sighed when he settled his arms more securely around hers, pulling the twins closer.

Max turned her head and leaned up to press their lips together. They held together like that for a good long while before she pulled back slowly. "Thanks." She breathed over his mouth. The corner of his mouth ticked up again but he leaned forward to press it away with her lips.

"You're welcome." He pulled back to whisper to her. "You know I love you, right? I was never gonna stop looking for you."

Max met his eyes; bright with long held terror, love and hope. Her heart swelled with her own quiet, long-held love of this man, the father to her children.

"I never doubted that for a minute, Alec."

_Aha! I finally finished another chapter! I seriously just have a problem keep them one-shots. And this ended up a little mushy at the end…but I figured that after all that drama Max deserved a little treat. Thanks for all your patience with the pace of this story. Reviews would certainly be nice…if you'd be so inclined… :0)_


	11. P

_Hi. So I know it has been awhile. Like two years? I'll just say life got in the way but I never forgot about finishing these up. I actually had a completely different idea for this one…but when I sat down to work on "Promise" and polish it up for posting I found I wanted that story to be something else. So, a little discussion with the muse and this is the end result. I do not own Dark Angel—no profit is being made. As always, I would happily take Alec. _

**Promise**

"I'll never understand it Cindy."

"Hmmm?" OC glances at her, in the process of stuffing her Jam Pony bag for the last run of the day.

"Normal. Why he can't see through Alec's bullshit." Max scowls and throws her shoulders back into her own locker. "I mean, look at him!" She gestures at their boss fawning over the thorn in her side.

OC humors her and leans back a little to peer around Max's skulking figure to see Alec smiling charmingly at Normal. "Seems fine to me."

"What do you mean fine?"

"It means," Cindy huffs a big sigh before turning to face her- "that whether or not Normal chooses to be suckered into Hot Boy's charms is no business of yours."

Max snorts. "Charms, what charms? And what do you mean it isn't my business?"

"It means that the boy could charm the spots off a leopard and it ain't _your_ business what Normal thinks of that." OC placed her bag across her body and turns to leave. "Besides Max, Alec ain't half bad. If he wasn't you wouldn't let him be here."

Max's mouth drops open. "What? No, that idiot won't leave! That's why he's still here. I don't have anything to do with it!" Max shouts at her best friend's back.

"Mmmmhmmmm. Sure thing, Boo."

Cindy sashays toward the exit, hooking her arm through Alec's. "Come on Pretty Boy; accompany OC outside like a gentleman." Alec blinks at her, opening his mouth to protest when he notices Max's nuclear expression.

"Alright, OC. Whatever my lovely lady wants." Alec pivots on his toes to more securely tuck her hand in his elbow. He flashes her a cheeky smile that causes OC to roll her eyes in response.

Max starts stomping after them not quite done with their conversation, thank you very much when Normal pulls his gaze away from Alec's retreating back long enough to notice her.

"You! Missy-Miss! Hot run Sector 8!" He tosses a package at her that she reflexively catches.

"Why didn't you give it to Alec? He was just here!" Max sputters.

"He is doing his gentlemanly duty and—"

"As if! He just got out of the last run of the day!"

Normal's cheeks pinken and he shakes a finger at her. "No, he'll be right back. You however are here and we have customer's waiting so bip!"

"I can't believe you fell for whatever line of BS he fed you –"Max can feel her own face heating up to match Normal's.

"Alec isn't feeding me anything. Just because he has the potential, the promise, to be something more with his life doesn't mean that you should stomp all over it!"

"Ha! Alec? Potential? Are you crazy?"

"Golden boy understands a growing enterprise when he sees one, which is more than I can say for you."

"You two deserve each other!"

Normal continues to sputter before spitting out "I believe I said hot run, Missy. That means you should be burning rubber!" He spins and stomps back over to the dispatch desk.

"Whatever." Max mumbles irritatingly and strides for the exit ramp.

…

Max has mostly calmed down by the time she makes her delivery. Her mood marginally improved because the last delivery tipped her. She decides to stop by to see Joshua on her way home. Big Fella's house is on her way back to her apartment and Max finds she wants to spend some time in his comforting presence.

She brakes suddenly at the end of his block and mutters an annoyed "You've got to be kidding me!" at the sight of Alec's bright green motorcycle sitting out front. Before she can decide if she'll head in to confront Alec or not he takes the decision away from her by vaulting over the porch and into her view.

"Thanks Big Guy! I owe you one!" Alec calls out walking backwards and waving towards the boarded windows.

"Idiot!" She mutters. He's probably suckered Josh into one of his scams and Max's irritation is back into full force. She's pressing her feet into the pedals, ready to shoot down the block and intercept Alec when he hops, literally hops over to his bike. She doesn't know why he's always so damn cheerful.

"Later Maxie!" He calls giving her a devious mock salute before kicking his bike into gear and tearing off into the growing darkness.

"Damnit." She growls then shouts after him. "Don't call me Maxie!" She flies down the rest of the block and hoists her bike onto her shoulder to carry it up to the porch. She's annoyed yes, but not stupid enough to leave it outside in this neighborhood.

"Joshua!" Max calls as she pushes through the front door. "Where are ya, big guy?"

"Little Fella!" Joshua happily barks. "You come for dinner? I have little, little hot dogs!"

"Hey Josh." She wheezes out as Joshua picks her up for a big hug. "What did Alec want?"

"To ask Joshua for a favor."

"I thought we talked about not doing Alec anymore favors after the last time."

Joshua shakes his big shaggy head at her. "No, not going outside. Alec ask Joshua to do something for him, later if he needs favor."

"I told him to leave you out of his scams! I'm gonna bust his head in!" Max spins to leave and find Alec, he's probably headed for Crash and—

"No, Alec not ask for anything bad."

"How do you know Josh? Alec's irresponsible and—"

"Alec is Joshua's friend."

"Alec doesn't know how to have friends, Josh." Max adjusts her knit cap over her dark hair. She's almost to the door again when Josh reaches out a hand and grips her shoulder gently.

"Alec and Joshua friends. Just like Max and Joshua friends."

"Look,-"

"No, Max listen. Medium fella is learning. Friends help each other. Joshua help Alec, Alec help Joshua." Josh's eyes are so earnest, that Max almost wants to believe him. Alec's backed her up before. She wishes she could believe that she can always count on him. But memories of him almost killing her and taking her barcode permeate her mind.

"Alec hasn't always been our friend." At her words Josh's eyes get a little dark but he just firms his mouth.

"Alec lost, but his heart is good. Alec chose to help Max and Joshua in the end, that's what is important."

And Max can't crush that hope in Joshua's eyes. He likes Alec and wants to call them friends even after everything Alec's done. So she manages to twitch her lips in the ghost of a smile.

"Yeah. Guess so."

….

"And no one else seems to care!" Max knows she's boarding on shouting but can't quite seem to bring her voice down into the normal range. Alec is just so aggravating.

Logan sighs, like she's the one being unreasonable and taxing. He pushes his glasses back up his nose and turns to face her fully. "Max, I don't know what you want me to say. Alec's a little obnoxious, sure…but he's not a bad guy."

"What?" She pauses in her pacing of Logan's high rise apartment.

"I said- he's not a bad guy."

"You do know he steals from people, right?"

"As I recall, that was how we met."

"Semantics!"

"Max,-" Logan starts but Max just slaps the file they are supposed to be reviewing down on the table.

"He runs scams, steals from people, two times all over Jam Pony and Normal, Cindy, Josh and now, apparently you, are all singing his praises!"

"Well, I wouldn't say _singing_ his praises-"

"Did you or did you not just say that Alec, the same guy who cost us the chance at a cure for the virus a good guy?"

"No," Logan stresses frustration sparking in his gaze "I said he's not a bad guy. There's a difference, Max."

"Ha! And what's that?"

"Alec's screwed up a lot—"

"Understatement."

"But he's also done a lot to help us out too." He holds up a hand to stall her tirade. "He paid back the money lost when you had the doctor remove the bomb from his head and _he_ is the one who let us know about the transgenic at the Blowfish Tavern, right?"

Max huffs out a sigh and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, so?"

"So I think Alec is trying to live up to his potential and we should encourage that. He's making an effort Max and I think that it's only fair to acknowledge it."

"What is this potential everyone keeps talking about?" She throws her gloved hands up in the air.

"It's the promise of being a better man than you were yesterday." Logan's got an amused expression on his face. "Or woman as it were." He gets up and walks over towards his kitchen the soft whir of his exoskeleton following. "Think about it Max. You've done a lot of personal growing since I've known you." His eyes flick to the artwork that adorns the apartment. "Everyone can change. Why not Alec?"

…

Alec is sitting at the bar, just where she thought she would find him.

"Hey!" She tugs on his shoulder to swing him around to face her.

"Max, what a lovely surprise." Alec drawls sarcastically dark amusement in his eyes.

"You wanna tell me what you're up to now and save us both the trouble of bailing your ass out later?"

Alec rolls his eyes and shrugs his shoulders in his grey leather jacket. "I'll have another!" He calls to the bartender flicking his fingers towards his half empty glass.

Once the bartender nods Alec turns back to her.

"Max, I'm not up to anything. What makes you think I am?"

She crosses her arms across her chest and tosses her hair back from her face. "Because I know you Alec. You're always up to something." When he just continues to smirk at her she scowls and spits at him. "I talked to Joshua and you're pulling him into one of your scams again."

"Is that what Josh said? Really?" Alec swigs the remainder of his original drink down.

"It was implied."

"Ah, so you're reading subtext now are we Maxie? I didn't think that was your strong suit." He glances meaningfully at her. Her cheeks flush with anger and he ignores her glare to toss down some bills for his fresh drink. He gulps it down in one go and steps around her headed for the exit.

She turns to follow him out dogging his heels.

"Yeah, well when Joshua tells me you asked for a favor it doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

Alec lets out a short, sharp laugh. "Guess it does take a genius because you're wrong Maxie."

"Don't call me that." She mutters and steps with him through the doorway into the light rain beyond.

"Don't you ever get tired of casting me in the role of villain?" Alec stops short and faces her. "Hate to break it to you Max, but I don't sit in my apartment at night twisting my hands with malevolent intent and cackling about taking over the world." He grins slyly at her. "Pretty sure that's White's dealio."

The rain is damping his hair, turning it darker and making it stick to his temples. It's getting longer—his concession to her to help hide his barcode. And it's this realization—not any of the words everyone's been saying to her all day that breaks through to her.

Alec listens to _her_. He does what he wants in the end…but he listens to her. Get a job, get some friends. It hits her then, really hits her. What she says to him matters. It makes her stomach feel all squirrelly. She shifts back and forth on her feet, contemplating just leaving. But before she can make a move either way he's speaking again—boy can't stand a vacuum of silence when he's around to fill it.

"Geez, Max. I was just joking around. I know White's a serious deal. I wouldn't put Josh in danger." And his gaze is a little hurt, a little reproachful.

Max clears her throat. "Okay. So what do you need from Josh?"

"You really want to know?" His green eyes are a little distrustful—but there's something else lurking there. She would almost call it hope. She thinks of Joshua and nods curtly.

"Well, an old buddy of mine back from…_school_—"he glances around and she notes that there's a homeless guy lurking on the corner. She steps in a little closer to him. "Got in contact. Told him how much I liked Seattle. He's thinking of joining me here. Thought Josh might consider putting him up for a couple of nights until he gets his own place."

Max can't help it she makes a face. "Wait, you want Josh to host a sleepover? Are you 5?"

"What's a sleepover? Is it as fun as it sounds?" Alec strokes his thumb under his full lower lip.

"When a group of friends spend the night together in one place. So, what were you chatting with Normal about today then?"

"Ooo, definitely sounds fun. Why don't we have sleepovers Max? Would OC like to join us?" His eyes gleam wickedly at her.

She reaches over and thumps him soundly on the shoulder, ignoring his protest of pain. "What were you and Normal talking about?"

"God, you can be a bitch, you know that right?"

Max just arches her own eyebrows back at him loving the look of irritation he gives her in return. Maybe that's why he's always tossing his own eyebrows about. She notices he scrunches up his nose when he's annoyed. It's almost…adorable. She shakes her head to clear it. Maybe she needs to try and catch a few hours of sleep because there's no way she just thought Alec's nose was adorable. Gross.

"Fine, I was just asking if Normal would be interested in hiring a few more…motivated employees, alright? Just in case my buddy decides to come to town." Alec's rubbing his arm and she's pretty sure he's pouting.

"Okay."

"Okay? That's it? You're not going to integrate me some more?" He stills suddenly looking bewildered.

"Nope. Got better things to do than check up on every little thing you're doing these days."

"Really? Since when? Aren't you worried I'm gonna screw up?"

"Are you?"

"No! Contrary to belief Max I did manage just fine without you for twenty some years." Alec's planted his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. She tilts her head to the side and studies him for a moment.

Sure, he says he'd been fine before they met but Max knows that's not exactly true. She knows a few things about him now, she's seen under that veneer of armor he wears around him like a mask. It makes Max realize she likes him better _now_ than when he'd first started backing her up. Because he listens to her. Logan's right. He's making an effort.

"Sure you were." Max shakes her head and waves her hand goodbye. "Next time though, you could always just ask me for help instead of sneaking around. Makes it look like you're trying to get away with something."

Alec snorts. "Sneak? I wasn't sneaking! Besides, like you let me get away with anything."

She turns and smirks at him while she continues to walk backwards. "Maybe there's hope for you yet."

_Phew! It's been awhile and I'm feeling pretty rusty. I really struggled with Max and Normal's interaction. Anything besides a "bip" or two seems to be hard for me to write. I feel like I have a much better grasp of Max/Alec hell, even Max/Logan interactions better. Hopefully you all enjoy it either way though. Hopefully it won't be as long before the next update. Bye!_


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